


Blinded by Love

by CatiiaSofiia, MissChrisDaae



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-09-23 20:09:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17086925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatiiaSofiia/pseuds/CatiiaSofiia, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissChrisDaae/pseuds/MissChrisDaae
Summary: After five months of separation, Anakin Skywalker returns to Coruscant and the arms of his beloved wife, Padmé Amidala, but after such a long separation, she feels different.There's a very good reason.The Padmé Amidala who sleeps beside Anakin Skywalker is an imposter, used by Darth Sidious as a placeholder while he keeps the true Amidala prisoner in anticipation of the birth of her children.With the Dark Side swirling around Anakin and the twins' birth drawing near, it is a race against time to defeat the Sith, save the Galaxy, and find each other.—Work title and chapter titles from the VOX LUX song of the same name.





	1. Staring into the Sun

Chancellor Palpatine’s rescue had granted Anakin a blessing in disguise. The chance to return home after five standard months in the Outer Rim Sieges. Even now, as Anakin’s heart pounded in his throat, he kept smiling, and nodding, and shaking hands—and trying desperately to work his way toward a familiar golden-domed protocol droid who hung back beyond the crowd of Senators, his right arm lifted in a small, tentative wave at R2-D2. Threepio had to know where his wife, the reason of his whole existence, was, right?

Because… she wasn’t here. Why wasn’t she here? Something must have happened.

“Threepio—”

Anakin came up close beside the droid he had built in the back room of his mother’s slave hovel on Tatooine: the droid who had been both project and friend through his painful childhood: the droid who now served the woman he loved.

Threepio had been with her all these months, had seen her every day, had touched her, perhaps even today—he could feel echoes of her resonating outward from his electroplated shell, and they left him breathless.

“Oh, Master Anakin!” Threepio exclaimed.

“Threepio, have you seen her?” Anakin was trying so hard not to shout that his voice came out a strangled croak. “Where is she? Why isn’t she here?”

“Oh, well, certainly, certainly. Officially, Senator Amidala is extremely busy,” C-3PO said imperturbably. “She has been sequestered all day in the Naboo embassy, reviewing the new Security Act, preparing for tomorrow’s debate—”

Anakin couldn’t _breathe._ She wasn’t there. It couldn’t be. He was away for _five entire months._ Why wasn’t she there to receive him? To see him? To welcome him back home? Had… had her feelings changed? Had… had she forgotten about him? But it was then something in his tired mind clicked. Something in Threepio’s language.

“Wait, did you say… _officially?_ ”

“Oh, yes, Master Anakin.” Threepio sounded entirely virtuous. “That is my official answer to all queries regarding the Senator’s whereabouts. All afternoon.”

Anakin smiled.

“And unofficially?”

The protocol droid leaned close with an exaggeratedly conspiratorial whisper:

“Unofficially, she’s waiting in the hallway.”

The Jedi’s grin was so wide, so brilliant, it would have blinded anyone in sight. She was there. She had come to him. His wife. His Padmé. His _angel._ It took all the strength inside of him not to rush down the hallway as a madman, to look for her, to hold her in his arms and never let her go. But no, he kept a steady pace even if it killed him. He was soon joined by Bail Organa of Alderaan and the two fell into a simple conversation that Anakin really had no intention of paying attention. Finding Padmé, being with Padmé was all that he wanted. Bail was talking about how Count Dooku’s death was the end of the war, and at that, Anakin sighed.

“I wish that were so,” he said, “but the fighting will continue until General Grievous is spare parts. The Chancellor is very clear on this, and I believe the Senate and the Jedi Council will both agree.”

As Bail felt pensive, Anakin sensed her and he turned his head discreetly, watching the hooded figure behind the pillar. _Padmé. Angel._ “Excuse me,” he said to Bail, who waved him off with a polite smile and walked forward to catch up with Palpatine’s entourage. As Anakin saw himself alone, he ran towards the figure, creeping in the dark and suddenly, suddenly she was in his arms and he felt whole again.

“Padmé. Oh, Force, how I’ve missed you!”

He was quick to find her lips, capturing her in a searing, hot kiss. A kiss that told her of his insecurities, of his passion, of his need for her. Yet, something in the back of his head felt… wrong.

“It’s really you,” she whispered into his chest. “I’d heard rumors that you’d been killed, but I didn’t want to believe it. Oh, Anakin, never leave me like that again.”

“Never believe those rumors, I will always return home. To you. Where I truly belong,” he muttered into her soft hair, kissing her temple gently. “The war is coming to an end Padmé, and not long from now, I will be forever with you.”

“Until the Jedi take you from me again.” Padmé’s voice grew unexpectedly harsh. “You know they’ll do it, you’re their poster boy. And they need you.”

“ _Man._ Poster man,” he corrected her just like he did minutes before with Obi-Wan. Something in her harsh tone made him wary… Padmé was usually the more rational one of them and she was very diplomatic when it came to their duties to the Galaxy. But he brushed it off. It had been five long months, after all, she had the right to be frustrated with their constant distance, just as he was. “Grievous will soon join Dooku and then I might get assigned the troublesome duty of teaching younglings. You know they will never give me the rank of Master. They want me to end the war and when that’s done… I’m going to be only known for the wild tales of the Clone Wars.”

“Come to my apartment as soon as you can.” She squeezed his hands. “We can’t be seen just yet, but I want us to talk. About our future. And make up for lost time.”

He lifted her chin with one finger and leaned down to kiss her again. He could never take those kisses for granted. Talking about their future seemed like the best thing to do. Anakin could use that as another reason for him to fight harder to bring Grievous down. A future. With him and Padmé on it. Maybe children, their children who they would make out of the purest love.

Their kiss broke and he smiled, nuzzling her nose. “I’ll be there. Soon. Very soon. I just need to debrief the Council on the sieges with Obi-Wan but after that? I'm yours.”

“I hold you to that.” She smiled, but the way the shadows hit her face added an odd sort of darkness to it. “Don’t keep me waiting.”

She left, and Anakin wondered what was the odd feeling in the back of his mind. His wife seemed different. It was… difficult to explain, but there was something about her that wasn’t there five months ago, when he left. The Jedi sighed, shaking his head. He was tired, that was it. Besides, five months during a war can change someone, and Anakin is the first one to vouch for that. Maybe all he notices in Padmé are war changes, something necessary to survive each day in the Senate Rotunda, amongst the vile and squabbling colleagues of her.

Yes. That was it. He was confident on it as he strode in direction of the Temple.

Besides, what else could it be?

* * *

_Anakin…_

_Ani, where are you?_

_Anakin!_

* * *

Padmé was sitting on the veranda wearing nothing but a very sheer black robe and brushing her hair when he arrived. “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten me.”

Anakin leaned against the doorway, his beautiful blue eyes darkening significantly as he gazed at her. “Never, my love,” he muttered quietly, soaking in the view. “Is that all to welcome me home?” He teased, tilting his head to the side. “It was… bold.” Not that he was complaining, though. Five months away from her left him in pieces of despair over her touch.

“You bring it out in me,” Padmé replied, turning and dropping one shoulder of the robe so he could see the pale skin beneath. “Don’t I do the same to you?”

He suddenly felt like that young boy she had married, three years ago in Varykino. He flushed at her voice, her innuendo and the hunger for her inside of him increased. He pushed himself from the doorway, into the room and to his knees in front of her. Funnily enough, even if he was kneeling, he could still meet her eyes. “You undo me, and I think you know that,” he whispered as he leaned forward and kissed a trail of hot kissed up the curve of her shoulder, to the spot where it met her neck.

“Maybe,” she sighed, tugging at a particularly unruly cluster of curls. “But then again, maybe I need convincing.” She turned to look at him, her eyes dark and glittering with desire. “Do you accept the mission, _Master_ Skywalker?” The pink tip of her tongue darted out, running over her red stained lips before slipping back inside.

The way she called him sent a shiver down his spine as he moved lower on her body, undoing the knot that held both ends of the robe together and revealing in the feel of her smooth skin. He kissed her stomach and made his way down her body, towards her womanhood, where he could already tell she longed for him. He didn’t waste any time in foreplay, they were apart for too long, and the way he devoured her was unrelenting, wanting to taste her, to make her feel good, to claim her as his. His wife. His angel. His everything. Where his sun rose and set.

“I take that as a yes.”

As he pulled back, licking his lips, he quirked an eyebrow. “Aren’t _you_ welcoming your husband home, Senator?”

“Aren’t _you_ apologizing for being away so long?” she countered, crossing her legs tightly. “Besides, half the fun is in the chase. Hasn’t it been too long since we had any kind of fun? Any sexy little games?”

He sighed, kissing her knee. “It has. Too long. I can’t remember the last time we had the time for sexy little games, so why are you making me work hard right now?” Anakin whined, massaging her leg with his flesh hand.

“I don’t know, I’m feeling a little naughty. And you’re very cute when you’re frustrated.”

“Then tell me, Senator, what can I do to please you?” He raised his head to kiss her jawline sensually.

“Beg me a little, and I’ll be so very sweet to you, Master Jedi.”

“That is a new game, you never wanted to hear me beg before,” he whispered, still running his lips up and down the column of her throat.

“You never kept me waiting for five months thinking you were dead before,” she countered. “Just once, my love? Please?”

“As you wish,” she knew he could never resist her pleading. “Please, Senator, will you be so kind as to let your husband worship you the whole night? Please?” He brushed his lips against hers, taunting her.

“Oh, well, alright.” She uncrossed her legs, putting her folds on full display. “They’re all yours. Only we might not want to do it _right_ here. Imagine if the HoloNet caught us.”

“Always cautious, my darling wife,” he beamed at her and stood up. “Then to our bed. It has been a long time since I have had you and slept with you in my arms, in our home,” he took her hand and kissed her knuckles.

“Hmmm…” She leaned into him, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Carry me?”

He pecked her lips and swiftly picked her up, bridal style. “With pleasure.”

* * *

_Anakin, help me!_

_Help, Anakin!_

_Anakin, I love you…_

_I love you…_

* * *

Anakin shot up in bed, heart racing and head spinning. He felt nauseated as the echoes kept ringing in his ears. He couldn’t see a thing, but he could hear _her._ Her desperate voice, her calling to him and he was helpless, so helpless… it physically aches not being able to soothe her cries in his nightmare and he grimaced as he placed a hand over his heart.

“Anakin, what’s wrong?” Padmé rolled over, brushing her curls out of her face. “You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

“I had… I had a nightmare,” he confessed quietly, grabbing her hand for comfort. _She’s safe. She’s here._ He took deep breaths. _Then when do I still feel uneasy?_ “With you. You were crying out for me and I couldn’t see you and you were in pain… I was so helpless…”  

“Like with your mother,” she finished immediately. “Anakin, this might be a sign. The Jedi kept you from helping her, maybe…”

“No! I will never let it happen to you, what it did to my mother!” He snapped, grabbing a fistful of the sheet. “I will always save you, Padmé. Without you, there is no reason for me to be in this Galaxy,” he said more softly, cradling her cheek. “No Jedi is keeping me from saving you.”

“But can you know that you’ll be able to keep that promise?” she pointed out. “What if it happens while you’re off on another mission? Or I am? As long as we’re hiding, we can’t truly be together, this was what worried me from the start.”

“There is nothing for you to worry about,” he vowed. “Oh, Padmé, do you think I would choose anything above you? Your health? Your safety? Nothing will stop me from saving your life, if ever necessary. If I have to leave my mission, I will. Even if I need to tell Obi-Wan the truth… I will.”

“Why not just leave now? Haven’t you given them enough? What do you really owe them? Qui-Gon bought you and said you were free, but you just ended up with another master you didn’t choose.”

Anakin looked away. It was hard for Padmé to voice his most irrational thoughts to his face. He kept caressing her cheek as he looked down at his lap. He wanted to leave, yes, but at the same time being a Jedi gave him a purpose, a sense of duty and that always came between him and the love of his life. He would never pick the Jedi above Padmé, but he at least wanted to part ways with the feeling of accomplishment. He killed Dooku. There was just Grievous to deal with.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came out of me,” she whispered. “It’s just that I hate seeing you like this, Anakin. This isn’t what I wanted for us.”

“I know and I am sorry I worried you so much these past few months,” he whispered and laid back down, pulling her to his chest. “I wanted a better life for us as well, but you were the one to say it, Padmé, we have a duty to this Galaxy and we can’t just turn our backs on it.”

“I just fear that the Galaxy and duty will destroy us before we can have the chance to really be together.”

Anakin sighed and kissed the top of her head. “Did something happen when I was away?” He asked softly against her curls. “You are not usually this harsh, love,” he pointed out. “You can tell me, you know.”

“The HoloNet seems intent on taunting me,” she muttered, glancing away from him. “Reminding me of everything we don’t get to do at every turn. Not to mention the fact that nearly all of my colleagues have somehow decided that _I’m_ their enemy, simply because I’ve stood by the Chancellor throughout this madness. I’m tired of it all, and I don’t know how much longer I can keep up the charade.”

“I don’t know why being by the Chancellor’s side could cause any rift, aren’t you all working towards the same goal?” Anakin became irrationally angry at her colleagues, the sleazy Senators that enjoyed more the arguing than actually doing _something._ “I believe the Chancellor wants the best for the Galaxy and standing by him, is not a mistake.” It was natural for her to be upset. Padmé had so much faith in others, that Anakin always feared she would end up disappointed when their true colors would be revealed. “I’m sure they will see reason, love. Besides, the war is near its end and we’ll soon be able to retire to Varykino for a really long time.”

“There is nothing I want more than to be by _your_ side.” She huffed and lay back on the pillows. “I’m not that sleepy anymore, I’m going to need to be exhausted before I can rest again.”

“You are _by my side,_ ” he chuckled. “I’m usually the one who’s petulant. Let’s not invert the roles.” Anakin kissed her naked shoulder. “Didn’t I exhaust you a few hours ago?” He quirked an eyebrow with a smirk.

“Yes, but I got my energy back,” she countered. “That happens sometimes.”

“Oh, well, I don’t feel like doing _all_ the hard work right now,” he drawled out and crossed his arms behind his head. “What are _you_ going to do about it?” He challenged.

Sighing dramatically, she sat up again and swung a leg over his waist, straddling him. “This, for a start.”

* * *

One, two, three, four— _now_.

Cross the corridor and find the next blind spot, then wait.

Listen for the passing guards and hope that they haven’t found out yet that their prisoner is not in the holding cell.

Footsteps passing. Hold. Hold. Cross now.

And then the alarms started going off.

Forget stealth and pick up the pace, fast as possible, just run. Run.

The doors were close, so very, very close, but the sound of stormtroopers was deafening. They were closing in.

“No. No!”

“Restrain her!”

The doors suddenly closed, making it a dead end, there was nowhere left to run as the heavy footsteps of the armored clones got closer and closer.

The only choice left was the blaster stolen from the unconscious guards left in her vacated cell. She fired off three blasts and heard two of the clones go down. But it was not enough. They kept bearing down on her, and she kept firing, but she knew she was going to run out of charge long before they did. “Just let me go!” she shouted.

“Remember, we are not to harm her,” a more commanding voice ordered as a few of the clones grabbed their own blasters. “There is nowhere else to run,” this time, it was directed at her.

She turned the blaster on her own head. “I’ll shoot. Don’t test me. Open the door, or I’ll shoot.”

“We know you are not going to do it.”

“Are you willing to take that chance?” Her finger curled around the trigger. “Open the door. Now!”

“Nothing lies out there. No one, nothing. You can kill yourself here or die out there.”

“Dying free is preferable to living as a prisoner,” she answered defiantly.

“But would you really murder your children, Senator?”

Padmé Amidala swallowed, looking down at the prominent curve of the stomach that held two precious, unborn lives.

Without another word, the blaster clattered to the ground.


	2. Drag Me Out of the Dark

Padmé winced as her nail cracked on the cuff keeping her chained to the center of the room. “I’m beginning to think we should just put a slave chip in you,” one of the guards muttered through the laser barricades of the door. “It’d save us all a lot of trouble.”

“When my husband comes for me, you are going to regret it,” Padmé hissed.

“You seem confident he will come for you,” another guard taunted. “Does he even notice you are gone at all, though?”

Padmé ignored that taunt. Of course Anakin would notice. How could he not? He’d probably left his post as soon as he’d learned she was missing, insisted on replacing whatever Jedi was leading the search. They were probably somewhere in one of the few Separatist strongholds left, but no matter where she was, she knew Anakin. He’d find a way. He’d find her.

“Lord Sidious would like to have a word with you, Senator,” the gleam in the guard’s eye was wicked as the lasers were turned off so he could enter with the holo, setting it up in the middle of the room. “He was upset about your attempt last night.” Stepping back, the holo projected a blue, hooded shape in the center of the room, right in front of Padmé.

“ _I thought you had better manners, my dear,_ ” the shape spoke dryly.

“You’ve held me here for five months, _Sheev,_ ” she spat bitterly. “Which is ruder? Your kidnapping a pregnant woman, or said pregnant woman trying to escape?”

The corners of his lips twitched as he pulled the hood back. Gone was the warm look Sheev Palpatine would fake towards her. It was a ruthless, cold mask. The expression of a Sith. “ _Have you not been treated well? Fed properly? I am taking every care, so you can deliver to me two healthy, precious heirs._ ”

“I’m a prisoner,” she reminded him. “And these are not _your_ heirs. You had no right to do any of this, I never asked for this! Give it up, you have to know you’ll be caught and I’ll be found!”

“ _You won’t be a prisoner for much longer, my dear, it’s not long now, the birth of these precious twins. I will have no use for you after that._ ” His expression changed into one of pure malice. “ _Will I? Will you? How are you so sure? It has been five months, Senator Amidala, you must surely be wondering if anyone is close to finding you. If your husband is desperately combing the Galaxy for you. Are you not?_ ”

“You would understand if you were capable of love.”

“ _Love…”_ he spat the word like it was poison. “ _Love accomplishes nothing. Power… power is the only thing that is worth living for. When you have it, you have everything. And you, my dear Padmé, are going to deliver to me the most powerful children of this Galaxy and worry not, I will take good care of them. I will teach them the ways of the Sith. I will teach them… power._ ”

“You’re more deluded than I thought if you think I will allow that to be their future,” Padmé hissed. “You will not take my children. I will not let you.”

“ _You won’t have a choice,_ ” his voice was final. “ _Your days are numbered. And so are the Republic’s._ ”

“The Jedi will stop you.”

The cackle that left Sidious’ lips was an angry sound to anyone’s ears. “ _The Jedi will soon be eradicated and I can assure you, Senator, your husband will be the one to see to that._ ”

She ignored him as she had the guard. Anakin would never do that. No matter how much he resented the Jedi for how their mistakes had hurt him and his loved ones, he understood that they were the best chance the galaxy had. He would never participate in their destruction.

 _“Ah, my dear, you’ve returned._ ”

That got Padmé to raise her head. Who was witnessing this besides Palpatine? What she saw nearly made her vomit. Standing in front of Palpatine was  _her._

No, not her. This Padme Amidala showed no indication of pregnancy, and it might have simply been the holo distorting the image, but there was something cold and dark about her features. Palpatine’s wrinkled hand was on the woman’s cheek in a grotesque display of fatherly affection. A changeling? No, more likely a clone, one he could program to do exactly as he wanted, one who might not even know what it was doing.

 _“Everything went smoothly, Lord Sidious,”_ she heard the imposter say with _her_ voice. _“Not a single issue."_

“No. No!” Padmé screamed as the feed began to crackle, warning of its imminent ending.

 _“I think I’ve made my point,”_ Palpatine laughed as he shut off the transmission.

“ _No_!” Padmé screamed again, collapsing on the floor and curling in on herself.

“Do you still think _he’s_ coming after you?” The guard provoked as he left the room, the laser beams turning on, trapping her in the room again.

Padmé glared at him silently. If Anakin wouldn’t come after her, she’d find another escape route. She couldn’t leave him with the clone.

* * *

“I think I’ve made my point.” As Lord Sidious ended the transmission, the clone stood, watching dutifully. “Continue with your report.”

“Lord Vader suspected nothing, as you predicted,” she said immediately.

“Yes, it should continue until he is ready to take his post, at my side,” Sidious said as he walked over to the transparisteel overlooking Coruscant. “It shouldn’t take long now. The Jedi will drive him to me. They will break him further. Then, my dear, you will bring him to my presence and he shall assume the position he was born to occupy.”

“And the children?” she asked, tilting her head in something that might have been concern. “You have not given me my orders regarding them.”

“The children are my concern,” he hissed. “Lord Vader should not hear about them before he has committed himself to the Dark Side. Otherwise, they might become a problem.”

“Should I broach the subject at all? Without specifics?”

“Hmm. Do it. Then convince him that the Jedi will never allow him - an orphan craving his mother’s love, craving an approval, craving connections - to have a future.”

“Yes, Lord Sidious.” The clone bowed. “Will there be anything else?”

“His relationship with Obi-Wan Kenobi can be dangerous for us. I want you to weaken it further. It’s not long before Anakin is not able to trust anyone within the Jedi, Obi-Wan is the last link that needs to be severed.” Sidious requested. “Make it happen and do not fail me.”

“Yes, Lord Sidious,” she said again.

“Now go, my dear, and remember… execute, at all times, the order 31.”

The clone straightened her spine and blinked as both the conversation and her mission were locked into her subconscious, wiped from anywhere a Jedi might see it, even one as powerful as Anakin Skywalker. “Good day, Chancellor,” she said, every inch the gracious politician that Padmé Amidala was known to be. “I will see you at the next Senate meeting.”

As he saw her leave, Sidious gloated to himself. His plan was flawless and within one standard week, he would have his Empire. He would have the Chosen One kneeling at his feet, pledging himself to the dark side and rising as Darth Vader. And soon… soon he would be in control of the two beings, destined to become even greater than their father.

Yes, Sidious’ plan was foolproof. He could almost taste his victory. 

* * *

 Anakin was still seething when he entered the apartment. Master Windu’s words ringing through his brain. _“You are on this Council, but we do not grant you the rank of Master.”_ After everything he had done, everything he had sacrificed for their missions, their whims. He was the best Jedi on the Temple and he knew it. _They_ knew it. Not even Obi-Wan supported him. He sat on that Council but he was a pariah, they would never, _ever_ saw him as an equal.

The stone cold expression on Master Windu’s eyes and the sneers he received from the other members… it made his blood boil and a red haze clouded his vision. If he didn’t do the work they requested, the Galaxy would have probably gone to hell already!

As he threw his heavy robe to the couch, he missed and cringed as he felt something shatter. “ _Kriff!”_ If that was Padmé’s favorite vase that she brought from Naboo, he was about to sleep on the couch.

“Is everything alright?” Padmé asked, emerging from her bedroom wearing another black dress, one that hugged the curves of her body in contrast with the billowing sheer white sleeves. “I heard a crash, did you hurt yourself?”

Anakin shook his head and came towards her, wrapping his arms around her waist, hiding his face on her neck. “The Chancellor… he was able to give me a seat at the Jedi Council,” he muttered against her skin with a sigh. “They made sure that I knew that they did not like it and that I would not be granted the rank of Master,” his hold on her got a little tighter.

“What more can you possibly give them?” Padmé sighed, reaching up and brushing against his hair.

“I think they will only appreciate me when I die,” he said bitterly, sighing at her touch. “You should have heard Windu… he spoke in a way to make me feel… inferior, insignificant.”

“I wish you’d thrown it back in their faces. Left them then and there. Why keep doing this to yourself, Anakin?”

“The Chancellor asked me to sit at the Council and be his voice there, I can’t disappoint him,” Anakin grumbled. “Not him, when he did so much for me. Padmé, I don’t know how long I can take it, I want… you’re right, I want to leave. Leave the Jedi. I can’t take it anymore.”

“Surely they’ll be sending you to deal with Grievous, and once that’s done, there’ll be nothing left for you in the Order,” Padmé traced his cheek with her finger, then softly pecked his lips. “We could be together. We could have a family. There wouldn’t be anything left holding us back from it.”

He half-smiled at the thought. “We could leave for Varykino. Raise our family there. Our victory is so close I can almost taste it and I know we agreed on only speaking about children after the war, but… it’s something that I’ve been wondering about,” he said shyly. “A baby. Our baby. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

“Just perfect,” she said with a soft smile. “Nothing would make me happier than being able to actually have everything we’ve ever dreamed of.”

“And nothing will make me happier than watching you grow with our children,” he kissed her cheek. “I won’t let anything stand in the way of being with my family. No war. No Sith. No Jedi. That’s a promise I intend to keep,” he vowed with a solemn expression.

“Come to bed and we’ll discuss it in further detail. Maybe get a head start on it,” she said with a wink.

* * *

 “Master Kenobi, thank you for coming,” Bail Organa indicated the chair opposite his. “I realize this was short notice and you’re very busy.

“You left me intrigued,” Obi-Wan replied as he accepted the invitation and sat down. “Besides, Bail, I value your opinion and I could not ignore an urgent request coming from you.”

“I would have included Master Skywalker as well, but I was,” Organa paused, tenting his fingers. “Concerned that he would not be as objective as you are. I know how close he and Senator Amidala are.”

That piqued Obi-Wan’s interest. “Is this in regards to Senator Amidala, then?” If it was, Bail was right to be concerned. If he had raised something against Padmé, he could see his Padawan reacting in a very… un-Jedi way.

“She’s been acting strangely these last few months,” Organa explained gravely. “I know that the Chancellor was her mentor for many years, and that they were always rather close, but she was never afraid to call him out when she disagreed with him. But lately, she has been,” he paused again. “Complicit. She never contradicts him, she’s practically in his inner circle with Mas Amedda and Sly Moore.”

Obi-Wan frowned and rubbed his chin, deep in thought. “That is very strange, indeed. It’s odd that Senator Amidala is suddenly on the Chancellor’s side, especially since he has been gathering power all over the Galaxy with little explanation. She would never risk the democracy she fights for, for a dictatorship. When has this change occurred? Could there be a reason for her behavior?”

“Nothing I could think of except some kind of mind trick, and we all know she is not one to be easily manipulated like that,” Organa sighed.

“She has a very strong mind, a trick wouldn’t suffice. You would have to replace her with a clone for something like that to work,” the last part was meant a lighthearted joke.

Organa blinked twice. “You don’t think he would have, do you?”

Obi-Wan froze. “He…” Somehow, it made perfect sense. Palpatine certainly had the means and more than enough access to the cloning labs on Kamino. “If he did, Bail, then we are in trouble,” he uttered worriedly. “Padmé,” he didn’t even address her formally, “has a lot of influence. And I don’t think he would do it just to gain political advantage,” he winced as he thought of a certain young, volatile, troubled, blond Jedi.

“What else could he possibly want?” Organa asked in surprise. “At this point, he practically controls the entire galaxy. The Senate is a farce at war with itself. There’s nothing else.”

The Jedi sighed and before uttering his next words, he thought about their consequences. However, he trusted Bail. If Palpatine had found a way to replace Padmé with a clone, then it had been a plan in motion for a long time and aside from the obvious reasons, Obi-Wan could think of a very clear one. “Anakin, Bail. He wants Anakin.”

“Skywalker? Master Kenobi, I know he and the Senator are friends, but Master Skywalker is a Jedi, just as you are. He’s a hero across the Galaxy. He wouldn’t betray everyone in it.”

“Anakin _is_ the Chosen One. He is very powerful, but if you dig deeper, there is more power to discover and that sort of power, is not discovered within a _Jedi_ temple,” Obi-Wan leaned forward, supporting his elbows on his knees. “If Palpatine wants absolute power, he’s going to need a Force-user at his side. Who better?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?” Organa asked, chuckling dryly. “Master Skywalker is gifted, but the difference between you and him is like the difference between a lightsaber and a blaster.”

“Don’t underestimate Anakin,” Obi-Wan chuckled. “All I am saying is that, while I believe in him and his good heart, I know the war has… damaged, to put it mildly, Anakin’s faith in the Jedi. Today’s situation with the Council did not help and I believe, given our conversation, Palpatine might have had it planned all along.”

“Obi-Wan, I am just as concerned as you are, but we shouldn’t get carried away with conspiracies,” Organa sighed. “I just wanted to ask you to keep an eye on Senator Amidala. Perhaps you can confirm our suspicions. Then we can decide how to proceed.”

“Yes, you are absolutely right,” Obi-Wan nodded. “I will, Senator, don’t worry. Also, I believe our conversation should stay between us?”

“If anyone asks, it never happened.”

“Thank you. If I discover anything, I will let you know.” 

* * *

 “Get me out of here!” Padmé’s shouts were louder than usual, as she thrashed about on her cot, tugging at the binder on her ankle with one hand.

“Screaming is not going to get you anywhere,” one of the guards snapped, tired of the Senator’s voice.

“No, you don’t understand, I think I’m in labor!” she screamed. “It hurts!”

“Should we believe her?” He whispered to the other nervously.

“Call an emdee,” his colleague replied. “We are under strict orders. We can only warn Lord Sidious when the labor is confirmed.”

“Then are you opening her cell?”

“She’s eight months pregnant, she’s not in shape to do us any harm,” the guard scowled and turned off the cell's plasma barricade. “Get the emdee. Now.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t just be moving her to the new facility Lord Sidious mentioned? She was due soon anyway…” his colleague pointed out, as he paged an emdee through the datapad.

“Polis Massa?” The guard looked uncertain. “Maybe we should ask him.”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“I won’t do it. He doesn’t tolerate incompetence.”

“Then let’s move her.” The grumpier one scowled.

As the two of them argued, Padmé continued to lie on her bed, writhing and clutching the wet stain at the base of her swollen belly as she moaned in pain. Suddenly, two emdees entered her room, carrying a hover-stretcher. Escorted by the guards, the emdees helped her to move from the bed to the stretcher without getting up, all the while, one of them monitored the babies’ heartbeats and vital signs. As they moved her down the halls, Padmé let her chest heave violently, watching the corridors fly by and counting down the seconds until they reached the hangar.

“Is the ship ready?”

“Yes. We are ready to depart.”

“Good.” Padmé grabbed the blaster of the guard nearest her and fired off two shots, blowing the heads off the droids.

“Hey!” She shot the pilot and one of the guards before either of them could move against her, pointing the blaster at the one she’d stolen it from. He took a step back, his hands raised, but she could see him inching towards his fallen comrades. He would surely try to grab one of their weapons. She put enough pressure on the trigger to hear it click.

“You can get out now, or I can kill you,” she said coldly. “Do you want to test me?”

“You’ve done this before. You know you can never escape,” the guard sneered.

“Try me.” She fired the blaster straight through his head. As he dropped to the ground, she heaved herself off the stretcher. The compound’s alarms were going off, she had to act quickly. “Hold on,” she whispered to her stomach, where the twins were sleeping peacefully, doing her best to run to the shuttle as the sounds of footsteps grew closer.

“Stop her!” she heard as she reached the top of the ramp. “Ground the shuttle.”

“I will not be making a return visit!” she shouted, slamming the button to close the ramp. The cockpit was close, thank Shiraya, but there was still so little time… She would have to jump to hyperspace as soon as possible. _Oh, Ani, I wish you were here, I’m not half the pilot_ _you are._

“Amidala, we know you’re in there, give it up now,” a voice crackled over the comm. Padme ignored it, strapping herself in and starting the shuttle. “Don’t try it.”

“Watch me.” Padmé spat, keying in the launch sequence and initiating it. As the ship began to rise, she felt the pull of a tractor beam and redirected full power to the engines. She _had_ to break gravity. Swallowing down her fear, she took a breath.

And switched to hyperspace.


	3. Why Have I Become Paralyzed?

Anakin was finishing getting dressed as he spied his wife searching through her wide variety of accessories. He was invaded with a memory of a small token of his young affection and he knew Padmé kept it close. She always recalled it fondly and said it was very dear to her. The only reason she didn’t wear it in public was that it might cast attention on them. The Senator wearing a gift from nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker, what would be the reason? However, whenever they were at Varykino, she would often have it in their walks across the lake or simply relaxing at home.

“Hey, what happened to the japor snippet? Never saw it again,” he said cheekily, leaning against the doorway of her closet.

“Hmm?” She looked up from examining a necklace of glittering red and black gemstones. “The what?”

He raised one eyebrow. That was… odd. Usually, it brought a nostalgic, sweet smile to her face. “The japor snippet, Padmé,” he tilted his head.

“Oh, right.” She held up the choker against her neck, inspecting it in the mirror. “I guess I must have left it on Naboo.”

The Jedi was taken aback by the cold answer. He didn’t expect it at all. “Oh,” he said before clearing his throat, frowning. “Oh, okay,” he mumbled. “I thought it was your lucky charm?”

“I just didn’t want it getting lost,” she said quickly. “You know how that can happen.”

Anakin nodded, distracted. “No, no, you’re right.” It was just another odd detail to add to the pile he had been gathering. Padmé just… she wasn’t the same and he knows that he spent five months in the Outer Rim sieges and that the situation in Coruscant had worsened considerably, but still, he never expected Padmé, of all people, to let herself be affected in such a way. It was as if she had abandoned all hope that the Galaxy could be saved. All hope in everything she believed. “I should go,” he said, quietly. “Obi-Wan asked me to meet him at the Temple.”

“Why? So he can remind you how much the council is disappointed in you?” she asked, hooking the clasp of the necklace in place. “Stay.”

He visibly winced at her cruel remark and he took one step back. “I… I think it’s about Grievous. I should go and see it through once and for all.”

“For how long?” she asked, turning around and removing the combs from her hair so that the brown curls tumbled down.

“As long as it takes. I will let you know after I leave the meeting.” His tone was harsher than before. Padmé sighed, tugging at the ribbon on the front of her black dress.

“Let him wait. Let them all wait. I’m here. I’m your wife, and I don’t know when I’ll get to see you again, once you leave. All I’m asking is that you stay with me a little longer.” The dress fell open, revealing a blood-red lace corset. “Please.”

It was a hard invitation to deny, but something didn’t sit right with him. Anakin felt uneasy, unsettled and that rarely… well, that _never_ happened whenever he was with her. Padmé was the soothing balm to his worries, to his screaming anxiety and painful mind, but all he wanted at the moment, was not to tear the corset from her body but to actually join Obi-Wan in the hunt for Grievous. “I’m sorry, Padmé, I’ll try not to leave without saying goodbye. But I really have to go,” he grabbed his lightsaber and hesitating, he kissed her forehead and turned around, leaving the closet in a rush.

“Anakin...”

* * *

  _Ani, I don’t know what to do._

Padmé leaned against the wall, breathing heavily as she tried to take stock of herself. It had been a week since she’d crashed her stolen ship on a planet she didn’t know, a week of trying to lie low and barter for food without ending up captured and sold into slavery, or caught by any of the many, many clone troopers that were milling about.

Palpatine couldn’t publicly label her a fugitive without revealing what he’d done. That was a small consolation. But he _would_ be looking for her.

Also, she was hungry and keenly aware that her children could be born at any time now.

There were footsteps behind her and a low voice echoed in the small space she had hidden. “Do you need any help?”

“I’m fine,” Padmé lied, keeping her head down. She heard the woman take a sharp intake of breath. “But thank you.”

“Hey!” A clone trooper’s voice came from the end of the alley, and Padmé felt her heart stop.

Sensing trouble, the young, cloaked woman, extended a hand. “Come with me. Quick.” Padmé looked up at her and her eyes widened in shock.

“Ahsoka?”

“We don’t have time. Come with me. _Now_!” the Togruta said harshly. Padmé grabbed her hand just as the first blaster shots came from the clones. Ahsoka deflected with a glowing silver lightsaber and she invoked the Force to knock all of them into each other, guiding Padmé down another alley with quick steps. “A little more and we’ll be safe,” she said. They’ve walked non-stop, down countless alleys until Ahsoka was pushing a door open and urging Padmé inside. Checking both sides of the street before entering, Ahsoka closed the door and mentally protected her signature and Padmé’s. She removed her cloak, she stared suspiciously at Padmé. “Senator Amidala is in Coruscant, at the Senate, in this precise moment,” she initiated her lightsaber. “So who are you? Why are the clones after you?”

“Ahsoka, I swear, it’s me,” Padmé insisted, holding up her hands. “The Senator Amidala you’ve been seeing in the Senate, that’s a clone. Palpatine abducted me, held me prisoner, and used it to cover up my disappearance.”

“That’s a very interesting story,” Ahsoka hissed. “But I don’t see how I can believe you.”

“Look at me!” Padmé cradled her stomach. “Look into my mind if you want, you’ll see I’m telling the truth, Ahsoka, _please_ , I have to get back home, I have to get to Anakin.”

Ahsoka hesitated as she reached out a hand and carefully caressed her stomach. She gasped as she felt a very familiar energy. The life Padmé was carrying shared the same energy, the same vibrant Force as her Master once did. “Oh Force… _oh, Force…_ Senator, I’m…” she turned off her saber and threw it on top of her coat, before hugging the other woman. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright,” Padmé gasped, returning the hug tightly. “I’m just relieved to see a friendly face. Are you alright? It’s been so long.”

“Forget about me, you’re pregnant with Skyguy’s baby and someone has taken over your life,” Ahsoka cried out, pulling away to touch her stomach again. She paused. “Oops. Sorry. Babies, apparently. How are _you?_ What happened?”

“It’s a very long story. And I think it would be better for all of us if we got somewhere safer. Do you have a ship here?”

“Yes, but not tonight. We have to let the dust settle for a few hours. They are hot on your trail. Early morning we can leave the planet,” Ahsoka argued and guided Padmé to sit on a small armchair. “Let me get you something warm,” she fussed as she ran inside of a small bedroom and came back with a blanket that she wrapped around the Senator’s shoulders. “I’m going to make you something to eat and drink and you can tell me everything, okay? I will help you get home, I promise. I will take you to Master Skywalker myself.”

“Thank you,” Padmé sighed in relief. “Thank you so much.” 

* * *

 “My lord…”

“You were not supposed to report until tomorrow,” Palpatine said, glaring as he turned to face his cloned Senator.

“I’m sorry, my lord, but Lord Vader left for a meeting at the Jedi Temple. He still feels an obligation to the Order, and to stop General Grievous.”

“Were you not able to stop him?” Palpatine questioned. “It was your obligation to break his ties with the Jedi even further.”

“I tried, my lord, he refused and left,” the clone answered, bowing her head in contrition. “I had no other protocols, I didn’t know what to do.”

“Is he suspicious?” Palpatine gritted his teeth. “Have you made him suspicious?” He repeated icily. “You are responsible for seducing him further into the dark side, not send him to the Jedi, whining about your miserable attitude!”

“I did everything you had me programmed to do,” she insisted. “I have no reason to think why he would suspect.”

The comm on Palpatine’s desk began to flare to life. Using the frequency of the compound on Mustafar. As he accepted the communication, the holo of his guards appeared in the middle of his office.

“My lord, Senator Amidala she…” he trailed off and swallowed nervously. Palpatine’s eyes narrowed. “She escaped.”

“ _WHAT?_ ” Palpatine snarled. “How?”

The guard looked stricken. “She faked her labor, my lord a-and s-she ended u-up stealing one of our s-ships as we w-were transporting her t-to Polis Massa—” He stopped talking, gasping for air as Palpatine glared at him, clenching a single fist. The clone shrank back nervously.

“You mean to tell me that Padmé Amidala is running around the galaxy with my prizes, and no one knows where she is?” Palpatine raged. “Do you have any idea what this incompetence could cost us?”

“S-She c-couldn’t have g-gone f-far, m-my L-Lord,” the clone stuttered. “We h-have s-sent out t-troops after h-her and w-we h-have a p-possible l-location.”

“Find her. _Now._ Bring her back alive. And if I am denied Vader’s children because of this, heads will roll,” Palpatine warned, releasing his grip and ending the transmission before turning on the clone. “Find me Darth Vader, and get him to our side. If I am to do it on my own, I have no use for you.”

“I am doing everything I can,” she whispered. “I don’t know how to better make him grasp the severity of the situation, or understand what there is for him to lose.”

“What do I need you for, then?” Palpatine asked rhetorically. “I will speak and bring Vader to my side myself. Return to the Senate. There are going to be changes soon and I will need you there to rally the Senators to my side. Be useful at least for _that._ ”

“Yes, my Lord.” The clone bowed and hurried out of the office, leaving Palpatine alone. Without the strength of the Dark Side that fueled the castle at Mustafar and the added precautions of ysalamiri around her, Amidala would have access to what little ability she had in the Force, she would be doing her best to shield her mind from him. He would not have another chance at her until she was in a weak enough state that she wouldn’t be able to maintain such protections. But perhaps there was an alternative.

* * *

  _Anakin…_

_Anakin…_

_Ani, where are you?_

_Padmé is screaming, her entire face wet with sweat and tears as she lies there, he can feel the life leaving her..._

_Anakin, help me!_

_Help, Anakin!_

_Anakin, I love you…_

_Now there are more screams, the screams of...children? Are they theirs, his and Padmé’s?_

_I love you…_

_Her eyes close...No, no, no!_

* * *

Anakin bolted up in his bed, covered in a fine layer of sweat. His breath was raging and mind racing. That nightmare felt so real. So painfully real! He brought his mechanic hand to the side of his face and felt it wet with tears. Quickly he whipped them away and tried to control his breathing. Why was he being cursed with this again? Wasn’t it enough torture when it happened to his mother?

Why Padmé?

Force… why him at all?

Obi-Wan had been sent out after Grievous alone. Leaving him on the ground with a ridiculous excuse from the Council. He’d seethed quietly in his anger as he watched his Master depart. It almost felt like a final goodbye and Anakin got a chill just thinking about it.

_Anakin, I know that you and Senator Amidala are friends, but I would be wary. I have reason to believe she is hiding something, and I do not want you getting embroiled in a political scandal that could cost you your future with the Order._

His Master’s warning had come at a time when, for the first time since he had met her, Anakin didn’t feel comfortable with Padmé. So, he had preferred to stay at the Temple, instead of going home. But still, with Obi-Wan’s warning, Anakin was still very sure of what he felt for Padmé and that was love, in its purest forms, and devotion. Unyielding desire and affection. Maybe the war was getting so bad they were starting to get affected. Maybe it needed to end for them to find their pace again.

Even if there was a scandal, Anakin didn’t care. He was tired of loving in the dark. After the war, he wanted to be finally happy. To finally feel free to love his wife in the way she deserved it. Contrary to what Obi-Wan was trying to convince him, he didn’t see a future in the Order. Anakin saw the looks he got from the rest of the Council. They looked at him like he didn’t belong there. Like he hadn’t sacrificed, bled enough for their cause. He knew that, given the chance, they would disregard him, throw him away. He was nothing but a poster boy for their cause and he was a little sick of it.

Even if he truly became a Master and sat on that Council out of their own decisions, he wouldn’t feel like one because he knows… he knows from the beginning he was not wanted. But it was a burden put on their shoulders, on Obi-Wan’s shoulders.

Sighing, he decided that maybe a little lightsaber practice would help him relax. The Chancellor had requested his presence early in the morning and he was thinking of later returning home to apologize to his wife. They had so little time together, he was wasting precious moments. Which… which made him postpone the practice and head for the hangar so he could take a speeder. It was early, very early. But Padmé was used to that.

As he traveled through the late night traffic, he easily found his way to 500 Republica, parking the speeder, he jumped into the landing platform and entered the quiet apartment. Maybe she was awake, reading some datapads? As he walked towards their bedroom, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It was so difficult to explain. After the nightmare he had, he wanted to see her and hold her, but there was something in him recoiling at the thought of the woman he had left the previous morning.

She was standing in front of the mirror, her robe open as she stared at herself with a frown, hands on her stomach.

“Hey you,” he whispered, frowning a bit at the show. “Not that I am complaining, but what’s with the view?” He tried to be cheeky as if it masked his nerves.

“I was thinking about the future. If I’ll ever get to carry your child,” she answered softly without looking at him. “What are you doing here? I thought the Temple was sending you to take care of Grievous. I saw the fighters leave.”

“That is a nice future to think about,” he smiled, entering the room and standing behind her. “You will look beautiful carrying our child,” the smile died as he sighed. “No, they sent… they sent Obi-Wan on his own.”

“You don’t sound surprised.”

“Obi-Wan is like… the favorite child. Defeating Grievous will be ending the war and they don’t want to give me that importance.” Anakin muttered bitterly. “So no, I am not surprised by their decision.”

“So did you leave?”

“No.” Anakin frowned.

She slammed her hands against the frame of the mirror. “What is it going to take, Anakin?” she hissed. “They have undermined and undervalued you at every turn, and you are wasting _both_ our lives seeking their approval!”

“I am not seeing their approval,” Anakin defended himself, raising his voice and taking a few steps back. “I have a duty, Padmé. A duty you keep telling me I have to fulfill. Until we end this war, until the Galaxy is at peace. It’s my duty and I thought you valued that!”

“I do, but apparently, you don’t, or you would have disobeyed their idiotic orders and gone with Obi-Wan, regardless of what they said!” she shouted back.

This… this was unreal. This was not something they would fight about, this was not how his wife would react. This… something was wrong. Seriously wrong. “That would be the sort of thing that would get me dragged through the mud. If I went against their ruling, I would be responsible for endangering Obi-Wan, possibly give Grievous a victory. I can’t have the Order blaming me for failing to capture the loose end of this war.”

“Your popularity far outstrips theirs, they’d shoulder the blame for holding you back,” Padmé retorted.

“Since when has my popularity became a valid argument?” He asked, baffled. Usually, Padmé berated him for such comments, and he only did them in times of too much arrogance, too much anger.

“Since I spent five months believing you were dead!” she collapsed on the bed, her arms folded. “Five months haunted by everything we’d never get to do, five months being unable to tell the Galaxy the truth! I don’t understand how you can stand this anymore!”

Anakin narrowed his eyes. She was behaving like a spoiled brat and not like the woman he had married, the poised Senator, the most fearless woman he had ever laid eyes on. “I don’t understand why you forgot I do,” he scowled and turned on his heel, abandoning her apartment, their home, for the second time in the span of a day.

“Anakin, don’t—”

Obi-Wan was right. He should be wary of Padmé, even if it pained him to admit it.

* * *

 Anakin was in a sour mood when he entered the Chancellor’s chambers. His fight with Padmé had messed with his head and he hoped that the meeting with the Chancellor was quick. “Chancellor,” he bowed his head. “You asked to see me?”

“I was concerned when I received the report of the mission to capture Grievous,” Palpatine said, coming closer so he could place a fatherly hand on Anakin’s shoulder. “The idea that the Council would hold you back now, it’s shocking, to say the least. No one has had a greater hand in winning this war than you have.”

“They felt Master Kenobi had the necessary skills to handle Grievous and my presence here was… useful. In case of another attack,” Anakin muttered. “Thank you, though, for the consideration, Chancellor. I am undeserving.”

“My dear boy, I have always considered you the closest thing I have to a son.” Palpatine sighed. “I have been worried about this for some time, and one of my concerns has been for you.”

Anakin blushed at the compliment. “Thank you, Chancellor. You know how I value your opinion as well and I only need to thank you for trying to give me a seat in the Council. But I don’t think the other members were happy about it,” he confessed. “Why is that?” He frowned.

“There have been some concerns from members of the Senate that the Jedi are,” Palpatine paused, “Growing accustomed to the power they wield. The people have this fear too. They are growing resentful of how the war continues.”

“Yes, but the Jedi do everything in their power to stop it,” Anakin whispered.

“Yet they don’t allow you, their strongest warrior to be a part of it?” Anakin grew quiet and glanced away, biting the inside of his cheek. The Jedi were always wary of the power _he_ wielded. And having the Chancellor voice his inner dark thoughts was not helping his already sour mood. “It seems to me that they fear you.”

“I have tried my best not to give them reasons to, Chancellor, I want the same thing as they do. The end of the war.”

“You are their Chosen One. The most powerful Force user the galaxy has ever seen. Perhaps it is the politician in me, but it makes perfect sense to me that they would feel threatened by your power.”

“If they still fear me, Chancellor, I don’t know how to change their minds. I have been part of the Jedi for more than a decade and did everything they’ve asked of me,” Anakin’s temper flared. “I haven’t done more because they wouldn’t allow it.”

“It is a shame. A man of your capability, you should be on your way to being the Grand Master of the Order. And so much more.”

“That is never going to happen,” Anakin snorted. _Over Yoda’s dead body, and even then…_ “They don’t acknowledge me as a Master, Chancellor, let alone get to be the Grand Master.”

“And you don’t find that unsettling at all?” Palpatine turned to look at him. “They want you to spy on me, don’t they?”

Anakin froze. He eyed the one man who has given him unconditional support and recognition and swallowed the lump in his throat. He found himself unable to lie, unable to protect the Jedi, especially when Palpatine was right about the Council and how they acted towards him. For once, he wanted to return the support of the Chancellor and feel the support in return. “Yes. But I won’t. It is not how I am, Chancellor, and after everything you have done for me, I could never betray you like that.”

“I know. You are a better man than many in the Galaxy are. I suppose they told you it was for the good of the Galaxy?”

“Everything they do is,” he said ironically. “They fear _your_ power, Chancellor, more than they do mine.”

“Do you think they have any reason to?” Palpatine sat in the armed chair behind his desk, gesturing for Anakin to take a seat in the one opposite him. “Good and evil are really quite subjective when you think about it. In the times of the Old Republic, the Lords of the Sith were just as dedicated to justice and security as the Jedi are now. What makes one good and the other evil?”

Anakin sat as requested and frowned at the Chancellor’s words. “Sith were unable to feel compassion. It made them dangerous, given their dedication to enforcing the laws of the dark side.”

“Then I suppose you’ve never heard of Darth Plagueis the Wise.”

“No, I haven’t.”

“The Jedi wouldn’t be all that eager to share such a story. It’s an old Sith legend about a master of the Dark Side, one who was studied the Force for many years until he learned how to influence the midi-chlorians themselves. It’s said he was powerful enough even to save the ones he loved from death.”

That perked Anakin’s interest and leaned forward. “How would he do that? Saving someone from dying is impossible, against nature.” It was what the Jedi preached, at least.

“Many of the powers of the Sith would be considered unnatural. But then, the same could be said of you, could it not, Anakin? Why are you possible and this story is not?”

He had a point. Anakin’s conception wasn’t supposed to happen, after all, his mother never had a man, he never had a father. It was unnatural by the Jedi’s standards. By the Galaxy’s standards. “The Sith crave war, Chancellor, belonging to the dark side is… losing your soul, that is what makes it unnatural,” he frowned, parts of himself fighting against one another. One side wanted to believe the Sith were not the vile, cruel creatures the Jedi paint them to be. The other one, the dutiful Padawan of Obi-Wan Kenobi, wanted to end that conversation and know what the Chancellor wanted after all. “Why do you take such interest in Sith and Jedi relations?”

“Their battles have shaped the fate of this Galaxy since our history was first recorded,” Palpatine answered. “I think it is irresponsible not to be educated in both sides, the victors and the losers. You would get two very different ideas of Tatooine if you asked a Hutt and a slave to describe it, don’t you think?”

“Yes, completely. For the slaves it’s hell, but for Hutts, it’s their kingdom,” he was quick to answer. “I guess… I understand what you’re saying.”

“Well, the tale does not have anything that might be considered a happy ending. He passed his knowledge down to his Apprentice and was repaid with treachery. The Apprentice murdered him in his sleep, using the very power Plagueis had taught him.”

“With just further proves the point of why the Sith are considered something to be wary of. Evil. The enemy. His own apprentice murdered him, how can that attract anyone to belong to the Dark Side?” Anakin frown deepened, a tingling sensation all over his body, some sort of warning.

“The same arguments could be made against an Order that takes children from its parents, raises them to reject perfectly natural emotions and attachments while telling them it is for the greater good,” Palpatine countered.

“Yes, but the Padawans don’t kill their Masters.” Anakin scowled. “Chancellor, is there anything you are trying to tell me with this story?”

“Corruption can be found anywhere, Anakin. Jedi, Sith, politicians, soldiers,” Palpatine shrugged. “They are all people, with the capacity to do anything. Power is simply the means by which they achieve it. Who is good and who is evil depends upon who wins.”

Anakin straightened up. Corruption… is that what had happened to Padmé? Why she was acting so out of character? Why was the Chancellor speaking about the corruption like if it was the weather? “Who wins should be the ones that want peace to the Galaxy. Not war or bloodshed. Corruption should not happen. Anywhere. Not in the Jedi. Not in the soldiers. Much less in the politicians that try to make our Galaxy a bearable place to live.”

“You would make a terrible politician,” Palpatine chuckled. “You believe so much in the goodness that could be.”

“I am not without my flaws,” Anakin muttered, thinking about how he murdered an entire village of Tusken Raiders.

“Is there something troubling you? Any counsel I might be able to offer?”

The Jedi hesitated. The dreams that haunted him came to his mind and burdened his heart, made his shoulders heavier. “Someone I care about might be… in grave danger,” he found himself confessing. “I don’t know what to do.”

“You cannot confide in your Master about this.”

“No,” he whispered. “Last time he did not believe me.” _And my mother died._

“Such a shame when we cannot trust the ones who should be our closest friends,” Palpatine said, placing his hand back on Anakin’s shoulder. “If there is anything I can do, do not hesitate to ask, my boy.”

Anakin sighed and thought about what Palpatine had told him before. He was not going to endanger Padmé’s life and make the same mistake he once had with his mother. Shmi had died in his arms, and he had been helpless to save her. He would not be helpless again. He would not stand by and watch Padmé die without doing everything in his power to save her. “How did Darth Plagueis cheated death, Chancellor? How did he control the midi-chlorians to save lives?” He asked quietly, knowing he was entering a dangerous domain.

“I’m afraid I don’t know. The Apprentice expunged any record of the scholarship Plagueis did. So that no one could use it against him as he had used it against Plagueis.”

His shoulders dropped. “What happened to the Apprentice?”

“I would assume he continued the Rule of Two, as is the custom.”

“He became the Master and found an Apprentice himself,” Anakin said slowly. “Is that it?” Palpatine nodded. “Would he have given his Apprentice the knowledge of Plagueis?” He had to know. He was the Chosen One, he would have the power to use the midi-chlorians, the very essence of who he was, of how he was created, to save her life. To save her from sharing the same fate as Shmi.

“The legend ends there,” Palpatine said apologetically. “I suppose the only way to know for certain would be to find Dooku’s master.”

“If Dooku was the chosen Apprentice, he was a very poor choice,” Anakin rolled his eyes with a sigh. “He wouldn’t have known anything.”

“I am sorry I cannot be of more help to you, Anakin.”

“I wish I knew more… I know there are things in the Force the Jedi do not tell me, they hide it, afraid. I start to think you are right, Chancellor, about their fear. If there was a way for me to learn how to save the ones I love…” Anakin trailed off. “I know I could do it.”

“It’s a shame there is no one to teach you.”

“You said it yourself, Chancellor. Dooku had a Master. The Rule of Two. There are always two Sith.”

“Assuming the Master even lives.”

“Yes,” Anakin said quietly. “Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me, Chancellor, it was insightful. As always,” he said with a brief smile.

“Glad to be of what little help I was,” Palpatine replied warmly. “My door is always open to you, Anakin. For anything you or your wife might need.”

For the second time in that conversation, the Chancellor left him speechless. He stared into the older man’s pale blue eyes and stuttered. “I don’t know what you are referring to, Chancellor.”

“Just like I know nothing about the Sith,” Palpatine said, nodding serenely as he tapped a finger to his nose. “You should be on your way, I’m sure the Order are expecting you to report back to them.”

“No… no… there’s something else you’re not telling,” Anakin’s eyes narrowed. “I can sense it, Chancellor. What are you hiding?” _Just like I know nothing about the Sith._ His knowledge was frightening if Anakin was being honest with himself, but it was useful and it was not just _anyone_ who would know the tales of Darth Plagueis.

“What are _you_ hiding?” Palpatine countered. “Besides your marriage? You feel it, don’t you, Anakin? Every day, the pull, the ambition, knowing that you are limited by being taught in only one side of the Force. We both know how passion and rage drive you, how they give you focus and clarity.”

“I can’t let myself give in to those desires,” he winced. “I become… different. Unable to control my power.”

“Why does your power need to be controlled?” The Chancellor rose, towering over him, and Anakin might have been crazy, but it almost seemed like there was a sickly yellow burn creeping into his eyes. “Why not embrace it, let it be free? Let yourself be free.”

“It would lead me to the Dark Side,” Anakin breathed in a soft whisper. He  _felt_ it. Just as he said. The pull. The ambition. The alluring whispers of the dark side.

“And why is that bad?”

“It goes against everything I was ever taught.” He shook his head, feeling dazed. Confused. Again, two sides of himself fighting for control.

“Taught by the Jedi, who have no understanding of the Dark Side, only fear of it.” Palpatine circled him. “For all that they preach against fear, they teach it. Fear of losing control, of the Dark Side, of  _emotion._ Why let them hold you back?”

“Why are you doing this to me?” Anakin asked, feeling the lull of the dark side, feeling it around him, embracing him, _accepting him._

“Because I know what you can be. What they will not let you be.”

“You… you are a Sith Lord,” Anakin realized as he widened his eyes. “You are Dooku’s Master.” It made so much sense.

Palpatine’s smile widened as the yellow overtook his eyes completely. “Yes, Anakin.”

Anakin initiated his lightsaber out of pure instinct. “I should kill you right now.”

“The Jedi would like that. But then the knowledge of how to save Padmé would be lost.”

“I…” he trailed off and his hand trembled. “I need to take you to the Jedi Council. They will decide what to do with you…” _but Padmé’s life would be lost, the Jedi will never allow him to teach me anything._ “It’s the right thing to do,” Anakin whispered, unsure if he was convincing himself or stating a fact.

“Is it? Or is it simply what they would want you to do? Has there ever been a point in your life, Anakin, where you have not answered to masters?”

Anakin stared at him for a moment and turned off his lightsaber. What had the light side of the Force brought him so far? Nothing but traumas, pain, and misery. Being good and being fair brought him what? The Jedi Council not wanting to acknowledge him as a Master. Ahsoka leaving him. Losing his mother. It was when he fell to the Dark Side ways that he felt more satiated. Killing the monsters responsible for Shmi’s death, for example. Choking Rush Clovis’ miserable self for a few seconds. “No.”

“Turn me in if that is what you truly think is right,” Palpatine said, moving towards the door. “But consider it first. Imagine what you could do if you mastered _both_ sides of the Force. What we could accomplish together.”

As the Chancellor left his office, walking towards the Senate Rotunda and leaving Anakin standing alone, the Jedi knew the next decision, would shape, not only his future but the Galaxy’s as well.


	4. Afraid of The Light Bringing Me To Life

“Master Windu, may I trouble you?” Anakin asked quietly, a rollercoaster of emotions and thoughts inside of him, turning him inside out, leaving him feeling even more helpless. After Palpatine’s reveal, Anakin has been unable to think properly. After wandering Coruscant, after meditating, he felt he had two very distinctive, very final options and they both had their downsides and he had to learn to live with the consequences.

“We cannot send you to Utapau to join Master Kenobi,” Windu said bluntly. “If that was the question, there’s your answer, Knight Skywalker. We need you here.”

Anakin gritted his teeth. Windu was making it difficult for him to stick with his final decision. His hands, hidden in the long sleeves of his robe, turned into fists. Maybe he should throw them all to their fate. Maybe he should join Palpatine. What did he owe the Jedi, after all?

_But I owe it to my mother._

_I owe it to Qui-Gon._

_I owe it to Padmé._

“I do not want to speak with you regarding Master Kenobi’s mission in Utapau,” Anakin replied, just as bluntly, his voice echoing the empty Council chambers. “It is an urgent matter. Regarding Chancellor Palpatine.”

Windu sat up much straighter in his chair. “Take a seat.” It wasn’t spoken in his usual commanding tone, he sounded unsettled. As if he could sense Anakin’s storming thoughts. “Tell me.”

The Jedi hesitated and took a seat, suddenly feeling sick to his stomach. Revealing it to Master Windu would destroy his chance of learning how to control the midi-chlorians to avoid death and he couldn’t let Padmé suffer that fate, he needed to save her. But… what would she think of him? If he became a Sith? “Chancellor Palpatine was Count Dooku’s Master. He is a Sith Lord. A powerful one at that.” He said, his tone devoid of any emotion, looking at the ground of the chambers, instead of Windu’s expression.

“You’re certain?” That was all Windu said. “There is no doubt in your mind?”

“He revealed himself to me, so yes, I am sure!” Anakin said, thunder in his voice. Why did they  _always_ doubt him? Why would he even  _lie?_

“Sky— Anakin. We can’t leave any of this to chance. If he is what you say, then he has managed to hide under our noses for decades. He may be expecting us. This could be a trap.”

“I am not going to say that he is not expecting you. He already suspects— _knows_ you, the Council, don’t trust him,” Anakin said hotly before pausing. “But I believe he is convinced of another outcome..”

“It doesn’t make sense.” Windu stood, slowly pacing the room. “Why would he reveal this now? He’s hidden for so long.”

Again, Anakin hesitated. Without Obi-Wan in Coruscant and with Padmé acting differently, he was not left with many choices. It was searching for Master Windu or seeking Master Yoda. He’d chosen the lesser of two evils. “Me. He… He wants me. At his side. As his Apprentice. The Rule of Two. It was what he always wanted. It was why he manipulated me to kill Dooku, he wanted me to earn my place.” The words tumbled from his mouth. It made it real. It made the nightmare real.

“Then the best thing you can do is stay here. I will take other masters with me and we will apprehend him.”

He narrowed his eyes. That was Windu’s concern, wasn’t it? To apprehend the Sith Lord. Not to know why Anakin had chosen to come to him. Not to know if he was alright, what had his reaction been. It was so arrogant of him to ask for someone to care? To treat him like a person? It was like the Force kept sending him signals that he was making the wrong choice. Anakin looked down and nodded at Windu’s decision, the turmoil within him exponentially growing. He was risking Padmé’s life on behalf of _these_ people…

“Anakin. I feel the conflict in you. I am asking that you stay behind so that Palpatine cannot try to take advantage of that. Whatever else is troubling you can wait until this threat to the Galaxy has been dealt with.”

“Yes, Master,” he answered mechanically, hands fisting inside the robes. What had he done? He was signing Padmé’s death sentence. For people that he didn’t care about, didn’t care for him and made him always feel inferior.

“This will not go unrewarded, Anakin. You will have saved the Republic,” Windu promised, “and there will still be a place for you on this council when we return.”

He had to hold himself back from laughing, shaking his head or making a sarcastic comment. If Windu knew the whole truth, he would not be making such promises. Instead, he sat, unmoving as his world slowly collapsed around him. “Yes, Master.”

_Has there ever been a point in your life, Anakin, where you have not answered to masters?_

“May the Force be with us all,” Windu said before leaving the council chamber

As he was left alone, Anakin took a sharp intake of breath. He felt suffocated, a gigantic pressure on his chest. He kept thinking of Padmé. How he could lose her, how he wouldn’t be able to bear it. The thought of her angelic smile, her loving touch, and soothing voice, replaced by the cries of agony and desperation left him crippled and he regretted everything at that moment. Regretted making Padmé a part of his world, for it was the reason she would suffer such fate. Regretted telling Windu the truth. Regretted not changing direction and heading to the Chancellor’s office and accept his offer, pledge to the dark side, wield it and save her life. Even if she hated him after, she would still be alive.

It was the thought of what his mother would think of him that held him back the first time.

It was the disappointment of Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon.

It was imagining a Galaxy where Padmé Amidala looked at him with hatred in her eyes.

Yet…

“I can’t do this. I can’t let her die.”

* * *

Mace Windu had forgotten how tempting the Dark Side could be. Three of his comrades lay dead and he was battling a Sith who was far too strong for the frail, old body that held his power. From the shattered window, the traffic and city life of Coruscant roared along with the adrenaline coursing through his veins. Suddenly, Palpatine dropped his saber out the window, crumpling to the floor as footsteps approached.

“Master, no!” Anakin shouted as he burst inside of the office, breathless, blue blade down at his side. “You can’t.”

“Anakin, please,” Palpatine croaked pitifully. “He’s trying to kill me. I warned you this would happen.”

“He must stand trial, it’s the Jedi way,” Anakin pleaded. It would gain him time. Obi-Wan would be back. He would surely help him… he would, wouldn’t he? “You can’t kill him.”

“We cannot allow the possibility that he might escape, he’s too dangerous to leave alive!”

“If I die, so does your wife,” Palpatine rasped. “Are you willing to sacrifice Padmé for this?”

It was easy to see how Anakin’s decision, side, crumbled under those words. He would never sacrifice Padmé for the Jedi, never.

“Anakin!” Windu shouted. “Anakin, don’t!”

“Will there _still_ be a place for me at the Council, Master?” Anakin spat and Windu feared he was seeing things, otherwise, his blue eyes darkened considerably. “I am _married,_ haven’t you heard? I will _not_ sacrifice her life!”

“Kill him!” Palpatine goaded. “Save her, save all of us, stop the madness of the Jedi!”

Anakin’s eyes glanced to Palpatine, face twisted and distorted. “I can’t let her die,” he whispered, more to himself, shaking his head. The dark side was intense in the room and it lovingly embraced him, calling for him. Offering him a comforting hug. His hand tightened on the lightsaber’s hilt. At that moment, Palpatine sent a surging blast of lightning straight at Windu, which the Jedi deflected with his saber, forcing it to ricochet wildly. One of the bolts struck Anakin, sending him flying backward, making him drop his saber and sending severe pain all over his body, enough to stun him.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Windu deactivated his blade, rushing to Anakin’s side and pulling him up. “This is not over,” he warned Palpatine as he began to drag Anakin from the office.

“Oh, but it is,” the Sith cackled, rising to his feet. “You just don’t realize it yet.” The last thing Windu heard before the doors sealed were the words, “execute Order 66.”

* * *

“Ah!” Padmé curled in upon herself in her seat as a spasm of pain wracked her stomach. “Ahsoka, it hurts, something’s wrong with the babies.”

“I don’t think it’s just them,” Ahsoka said warily. “The Force feels like it’s screaming.”

“I’m,” Padmé gasped, her face contorting in pain. “I need to lie down. How close are we to Alderaan?”

“Close. Just,” Ahsoka glanced at her with narrowed eyes. “Just keep them inside as long as you can? Please? I really have no idea how to deliver babies! I’ve alerted the Palace through a secure channel of our arrival.”

“Anakin…” Padmé whimpered, trying not to cry as she struggled to move from her seat to the bed in the back of the ship. “Ani, please, please, be alright, I can’t lose you, you have to meet our babies.”

“He will. Even if I have to drag him from hell myself,” Ahsoka muttered to herself, listening to Padmé. They were close to Alderaan, and she hoped the babies weren’t impatient. But, knowing their father, she probably wouldn’t be that lucky. 

* * *

Anakin groaned as the pain of the lightning subsided. His mechno-arm only made it worse, it was the perfect conductor to every nerve of his body.

“Anakin. Can you hear me?” Windu’s voice came over the hum of a speeder engine.

“No,” he lied sourly, trying to move but feeling his body stiff. “Force, that _hurt_.”

“We need to get back to the Temple. Palpatine has ordered a massive movement of troops there, we have to save as many as possible.”

“He wants to purge the Jedi. He must have had a protocol implanted in the clones,” Anakin winced. Force, did he almost… yes, he almost did. He took a deep breath. No time to wallow in self-pity. “I’ll take the younglings out of the Temple. The troops… I’m convinced they don’t have orders to kill me.”

“I hope you’re right because you are their best hope, Master Skywalker,” Windu said, passing him his lightsaber. “Use this. I’ll find another way in and comm for help.”

Anakin looked at the lightsaber warily. “You discover I have a wife, I was one step away from crossing over to the dark si—”

“All that can wait!” Windu shouted. “There are _children_ in there! They will be slaughtered unless we act now! You may have lied to us all and broken the Code, but I trust you to get those children somewhere safe!”

He accepted the lightsaber with a newfound sense of responsibility. “I will not let you down.”

“Good, because you’re going to need to jump.”

“Now you approve of my antics,” Anakin muttered as he stood up and looked down. _Here goes nothing._ He jumped from the speeder and using the Force, he made a perfect landing on the entrance of the Temple. He could hear thousands of footsteps up the stairs, thousands of troops. The 501st… He shook his head. They were not themselves, they were not to be blamed, and if he had to fight his war comrades to save the children, he would.

Running inside the Temple, he warned whoever he could to be prepared to fight and to _run_ for their lives, never stopping from making his way to the nursery. These children were helpless, they could barely use a practice saber.

Blaster fire began to echo outside the temple’s walls and the Force began a long wail of anguish as Jedi began to fall. Anakin felt the pain and wince, but kept moving forward. They would honor the fall by training these children. _How did I ever think of betraying my family?_ He pushed the door of the training room open and closed it behind him.

“Master Skywalker, there are too many of them. What are we going to do?” A young boy— was his name Liam?— said, fear in his expression.

Anakin smiled. “We are going to escape. You will have to do what I say, okay?” The children all nodded. “Good. Now, let’s all get together. I know a secret doorway to get us out of the Temple. We don’t leave anyone behind. Are you all here?”

“Yes, Master Skywalker,” they chorused nervously.

“Should we get the sabers?” one of the little girls asked nervously.

“Yes, get them,” Anakin nodded and ran to the furthest wall of the room. There was a secret door there, he remembers. He found it a few months after arriving at the Temple. It was how he snuck into the lessons when he was late. He even used it when he had to sneak into the Temple after spending the night with Padmé. _Padmé!_ After saving the younglings, he needed to go to her apartment. “Yes!” He said victoriously as, with a little nudge from the Force, a door opened. “Let’s go. All of you!”

The younglings began to toddle out, many of them clutching each other’s hands in the hand not holding their practice sabers. As the last one entered, Anakin rushed inside and closed the door, making sure it was locked with the Force. “I’m scared,” one of them said. “Why are they trying to hurt us?”

“Because sometimes, not everyone we meet, not everyone we defend is a good person and when they fear us, fear what we are able to accomplish, they try to hurt us to get us down,” Anakin said calmly as he led them down a spiral stairway. “But it’s okay to scared. I am scared too.”

“Anakin, do you have them?” Windu’s voice came through his comm.

“Every single one of them.” He answered.

“Good. Senator Organa is coming with a shuttle, we’re heading for Alderaan.”

“We will need to stop at Senator Amidala’s apartment.”

“Go there alone once the children are loaded in. You can meet us at a safer point. Send us the location of your exit so we can get close.”

“Agreed.” As they got closer to the exit, Anakin sent their location and got ahead of the younglings, in case there were any troops waiting. Their exit would lead them to a fairly deserted part of Coruscant, on the back of the Temple. He could faintly hear the sound of a shuttle, hopefully the one from Senator Organa. He stepped out first, lightsaber ready to strike. “Master Windu?”

The shuttle landed, opening on one side to reveal Mace and a few Alderaanian guards. “All of you in,” he urged. “Quickly.” Without waiting for further instructions, the younglings ran inside the ship.

Liam, the boy who had spoken when he entered the room, stopped near him. “Thank you, Master Skywalker, I knew you would help us,” he smiled and ran after his friends.

Anakin smiled warmly at all of them. “Get them out of Coruscant, Master Windu. They’re what’s left of our Order.” He turned off the lightsaber and handed it back to its rightful owner.

“Make sure you get out too,” Windu said.

“May the Force be with you.”

“And Anakin. Senator Organa met with Master Kenobi, I’ve told him to rendezvous with you at 500 Republica.” The shuttle closed and began to take off, the exhaust sending Anakin’s robes billowing around him. 

* * *

Anakin jumped from the speeder to the platform that would lead him to the living room of Padmé’s apartment. From the moment he set foot inside, he knew something was amiss. The Force was dark, clouded… it was a presence he had felt only in the Chancellor’s office. “Padmé?”

“Anakin!” she rushed from one of the side rooms to hug him. “Thank goodness you’re here!” At that moment, the bloodstained knife in her right hand caught his eye.

“Padmé… what is that?” He took a step back, stopping her from even reaching him. “What happened?”

“He came here...accusing me of the most awful things, I had to defend myself!” she protested.

 _Obi-Wan…_ as he sensed for his Master through their bond, he could feel he was injured. Not gravely, but enough to have stopped him. “Obi-Wan wouldn’t have accused you without a reason,” he whispered. After the reveal of a man he had trusted for _years_ and combined with Padmé’s behavior over the past weeks, he couldn’t trust her. “And the Padmé I know would have never hurt her friend.” He said stonily.

“Anakin—”

“Anakin… you rarely call me _Anakin_ when we’re alone,” he cut her off with a frown. “What _do_ you call me?”

Now it was her turn to step back, blinking in confusion. “I don’t understand. What else would I call you?”

“What is my nickname, Padmé?” He pressured, taking a step forward. “What have you been calling me since I was nine years old?”

“I don’t—”

“Anakin, don’t listen to her!” Obi-Wan’s voice came from the doorway where he was propping himself up against the wall as he held a hand to the bleeding stab wound in his side. “She’s not Padmé!”

“Yes, I’m starting to realize that,” his eyes flashed dangerously. How could he have been so stupid? With Palpatine? Now Padmé?

“Don’t listen to him,” the stranger begged, dropping the knife to try and desperately grab his arms. “Anakin, please, I would never do anything to hurt you, I just want us to be together.”

“You’re not Padmé,” he sneered. “Unless you can tell me about our first kiss. Then I’ll think about believing in you.”

“I-it was on Naboo, while you were protecting me,” she stammered.

“Try harder,” he demanded and took one step forward, forcing her to take one step back.

“We were at the Lake Country. At Varykino.” Tears started to form in her eyes. “Anakin, please, you’re scaring me.”

“Not good enough,” he grabbed her arm harshly this time, causing her to cry out.

“Please!”

“No! Tell me!”

“Anakin, leave her!” Obi-Wan shouted. “We both know the real Padmé is still alive out there somewhere, you would have felt her loss. We’re wasting precious time!”

“Where is my wife?” He tightened the hold on the imposter’s arm. “Who are you?” He snapped.

“U-unit PNA-1,” she sobbed, her entire body quivering in his grip. “L-lord Sidious c-commissioned me to replace the S-senator. I don’t know where she is.”

With a howl, he released her abruptly, sending her flying to the floor. “You’re a _clone._ ”

“Anakin!” Obi-Wan’s voice came again. “We have to go, Palpatine has declared the Jedi to be enemies of the state!”

“Shocker,” Anakin drawled and came to his Master’s side. On the ground, the clone whimpered and wept. “Now _this_ is the tenth time I save your life, Master.”

“Given you were hiding a wife from me, I think we’re going to negotiate down later,” Obi-Wan retorted as he staggered his way down to Anakin. “I’m just thankful we’re both alive.”

“Please, deep down you always knew,” he sighed and then nodded at his last statement. “Yes. We should leave for Alderaan as soon as possible. I need to find Padmé. I need to search for her.” Anakin stated as he placed Obi-Wan’s arm around his neck and helped him towards the platform.

“My lord—” Whatever the clone had been about to say was cut off as an overwhelming flood of darkness filled the apartment. “No,” the clone gasped. “Please, Lord Sidious—”

Anakin winced at it, struggling to keep his thoughts intact. As he looked behind him, he saw the clone lying dead on the floor and a sick feeling came to his stomach. _She’s not Padmé, she’s not Padmé, she’s not Padmé…_ but she was wearing her clothes, she had the same long locks, the same _face_. It was as if his nightmare came to life and she died without him doing anything. He felt himself growing colder.

“I did warn you,” Palpatine— no, _Darth Sidious_ croaked, skulking out of the shadows, his face now hidden under the hood of blood red velvet robes that somehow still displayed his glowing yellow eyes. “That’s the fate that awaits the true Amidala unless you reconsider your alliances, my wayward Apprentice.”

Obi-Wan struggled to raise his lightsaber, but with the wound in his side, his energy was clearly sapped. “Don’t take another step.”

 _That’s the fate that awaits the true Amidala…_ Padmé, where was she? Where had she been all this time? How could he have not realized? He kept staring at the dead clone and a dark picture formed itself in his head. Replacing Shmi’s battered and dead body with Padmé’s and Anakin nearly lost his balance while helping his Master stand up.

Sidious cackled. “Amusing, Kenobi. Very amusing. I see why Lord Tyranus wanted you. Perhaps in another lifetime. But not this one. Lord Vader?” He extended a hand, holding out Anakin’s lightsaber. “It is not too late.”

Anakin blinked at the calling. His Sith name. Sidious already had it for him. So fitting. So strong. However, as he eyed the lightsaber he had dropped when he had been hit with the stray bolt, he realized how naked he felt without it. His temper flared as he saw it on the Sith Lord’s hands. It was  _his._ Using a strong blast from the Force, he summoned the lightsaber to his hand and ignited it. “Get anywhere near my wife, and I’ll give you the same treatment as Count Dooku.”

The Sith’s laughter grew so loud, it made his entire body shake. “Lord Vader, I have  _had_ your wife in my custody for six months now. The replacement was an added bonus, it made it so much easier to run things in the Senate.”

He could have had reacted badly. He knows Sidious expected it. Obi-Wan eyed him warily. “You might have had Padmé in your custody but if you did have her now, you would have already used her to make me shift my alliances,” he gave the Sith a winning smile. “Brilliant as she is, she escaped, didn’t she? That’s why your minion was desperate to turn me against the Jedi. That is why you couldn’t help yourself any longer. Your bargaining chip was lost.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Sidious warned.

“Unluckily for you, that’s my specialty,” he countered and with a strong blast from the Force, he sent the Sith flying backward. “We have to go now, Master,” Anakin said urging Obi-Wan inside the speeder and taking the controls, he started the speeder.

“ _SHE WILL DIE,_ ” Sidious screamed as they took off. “ _AND I WILL HAVE YOU, VADER!”_

“Apparently, our Chancellor doesn’t like to be told _no_ ,” Anakin said dryly to Obi-Wan. “I didn’t even realize he already had a pet name for me,” he muttered under his breath. _Lord Vader. Darth Vader._

“It sounds ghastly,” Obi-Wan groaned.

“You don’t think Vader suits me?” He teased softly.

“Anakin, I am in a considerable amount of pain both from this stab wound _and_ our fellow Jedi dying across the Galaxy, now is not the time.”

He sighed. “You are still lecturing me later, aren’t you?”

“We’ll see where I am after an emdee looks me over.”

Anakin nodded. “How did you know she was not the real Padmé?” He asked softly. The picture of the dead clone was seared into his brain and until he was reunited with his wife, he wouldn’t forget it. Even then, he would have trouble.

“Bail Organa came to me. Explained how she’d been shifting politically, turning her back on old friends,” Obi-Wan explained, pulling his comm off his sleeve to send a request for coordinates. “I decided to trust him.”

“Even Bail Organa knew… “ he said bitterly. “How could I be so foolish?”

“Anakin, if someone who looked, moved and spoke like Satine showed up on my door, a part of me would want to believe it was her,” Obi-Wan admitted softly. “You love her, you wanted to be with her, and they took advantage of that.”

“You miss her, don’t you? Satine?” Anakin asked carefully, and Obi-Wan paused for a very long time before finally answering.

“There is not a day goes by when I’m not haunted by all the things we might have been.”

“Then is it too much to ask you to understand why I did what I did?” Anakin asked. “Why I followed my heart?”

“I was the worst possible teacher for you,” Obi-Wan said. “Turn left here, we’re nearly there.”

Anakin nodded, following his instructions. “You weren’t, you did what you could with a lost cause. I am sorry Qui-Gon left you with that burden.”

“He would have been a better teacher for you,” Obi-Wan sighed. “You and I were stuck with each other before either of us was ready. Resentment would have been natural if it hadn't been against the Code. And yet, I’ve broken the Code regardless, since there is no one left in this galaxy who is more important to me than you are.” The words shocked Anakin as he was left speechless. He felt immense remorse of the decision he almost took earlier, of the dark thoughts he had and the shame he felt drove him to silence. “Close your mouth while flying, Anakin, you look like a colo claw fish.”

Anakin didn’t laugh. Just closed his mouth and watched as the Alderaanian shuttle Tantive IV came into view, dreading the moment Mace Windu would sit down to tell Obi-Wan everything that had transpired that day. 

* * *

Ahsoka rushed from the Queen’s office to the infirmary where Padmé was being prepared for labor. At least she had some good news to give to the Senator. As she crossed the doorway inside the infirmary, she could feel them. The twins. They already had such a presence in the Force, once Anakin entered Alderaan’s skies, he would be able to feel it. Feel this power that was eerily like his own.

“Padmé,” she called softly, coming to the Senator’s side and squeezing her hand. “I have good news,” the Togruta smiled. “Anakin is close to Alderaan. He will be here for the birth of the twins.”

Padmé exhaled, rubbing at her stomach. “Are you sure?” she whispered.

“Yes,” Ahsoka grinned. “He’s coming with Obi-Wan and Windu… Palpatine has been revealed as the Sith Lord.”

“I could have told them that,” Padmé hissed, grimacing as another contraction hit. “The painkillers aren’t working anymore.”

“The Galaxy has been declared as an Empire,” Ahsoka grimaced. “The Jedi were purged and they are coming with what’s left of the Order. Including the younglings. I’m going to meet them at the hangar and I’ll bring him to you immediately. Okay? Hold them in a few minutes longer?”

“I am not the one in charge anymore,” Padmé grumbled as the emdee administered another shot of painkillers. “These two will come charging out when they want, just like their father.”

Ahsoka chuckled and kissed her forehead. “I’ll be back with your husband.”

“ _Hurry_.”

The young Togruta left the infirmary in a haste. She ran towards the hangar and hoped they would be landing soon. There would be time to speak about the events in Coruscant. Now, she only wanted to grab her former Master, tell him he was going to be a father and take him to his wife. Ahsoka was sure there was a _lot_ they needed to talk about, but the Skybabies were not going to wait on anyone or anything.

A shuttle appeared in the distance and one of the guards turned on the comms. “Shuttle Tantive IV, is that you?” he asked. “Confirm.”

“This is the Viceroy,” Bail Organa’s voice came over. “We’re all safe. No tracking on us. Permission to land?”

“Opening hangar three. Clear for landing.”

“Hang on.” Ahsoka moved to the comms. “Is Master Skywalker there? This is Ahsoka Tano. Skyguy, are you there?”

“Snips?” Anakin asked, surprise clear in his voice. “What… what are you doing in Alderaan? Are you alright?”  He sounded concerned.

“Long story, but it can wait. I’m fine. And that feeling you’re getting as you get closer? That’s your kids,” Ahsoka said, unable to suppress her smile. “They’re _really_ eager to come out and meet you.”

There was silence on the other end of the comms. A very long silence.

“What do you mean? _What_ kids?” Anakin sounded freaked out on his end. “The Force is still shaking from the loss it suffered from the Purge, Ahsoka, I thought it was repercussions of the Jedi fall!”

“Padmé’s here,” Ahsoka explained. “I found her on Eriadu. And she’s pregnant. This Order 66 thing Palpatine did, it started her labor. You made some _very_ force-sensitive babies.”

“We’ll be landing shortly, Ahsoka,” it was Obi-Wan’s calm, serene voice.

“Okay, Master Kenobi. Do you think you snap him out of it by then?”

“A lot happened in Coruscant before we left.” He paused. “Let’s just give him a minute to process this new information.”

“Alright, but hurry, I think Padmé’s gone through the entire planet’s supply of painkillers at this point.”

“Master Kenobi said we will land shortly,” Mace Windu cut her off impatiently.

Ahsoka stiffened. He didn’t sound any different than he had the day she left the Temple. “Hangar bay three,” she told Windu coldly, shutting off the comm.

As the shuttle entered the hangar and it began to land, what Ahsoka initially saw as the ramp was lowered was the bustling energy of the Temple’s younglings. Aides from the Palace rushed to the children’s side, bringing blankets and hot chocolate with them. Ahsoka, however, was more focused on finding Anakin. “Skyguy?” she called.

“Where is she?” Her former Master materialized next to her, looking livid. His usual sun-kissed skin was a few shades paler and he looked at her with wide, lost, blue eyes.

“Queen Breha’s medical suite, this way.” Ahsoka paused for a second, then hugged him. “She’s okay. I mean, she’s just as desperate to see you and in labor with twins, but she’s safe and she’s here.”

Anakin barely acknowledged the hug as he pulled away. “I have to see her,” he turned around and marched out of the hangar. He barely knew Alderaan and he had no idea where the medical suite was, but the Force was going to guide him. When Ahsoka told him about his _children’s_ presence in the Force, he recognized it immediately. First, he thought it was the Force recovering from the extreme loss it had suffered, but after he knew the truth, he could see it clearly and he was now holding on to that presence, to find his wife.

He felt, however, sick to his stomach. He didn’t know Padmé was missing until a few hours ago. He discovered she had been taken by Sidious and has been imagining what he could have possibly done to her and now _this._ Padmé had been pregnant all along and she had been alone, kidnapped, while an imposter took her place in the Senate, at _his_ side and he had been so blind that he didn’t see the differences. He would never forgive himself.

“Sir, I can’t let you go in there, it’s—”

The guard was thrown against the wall without Anakin moving a muscle. “Don’t—Don’t test me.”

“Skyguy, calm down, you’re going to scare the twins,” Ahsoka gasped as she sprinted to keep up with him. “And Padmé.”

“I had a _really_ long day, Ahsoka, forgive me if I don’t have my manners,” he seethed as he kept walking, his long strides frustrating him, as he felt he wasn’t walking fast enough.

“You just walked past the suite.” Ahsoka grabbed his hand. “Take a breath. I know everything’s awful, but Padmé _needs_ you. You’ve been basically all she’s asked about since I found her. She needs you to be there for her, right now, and so do your babies.”

Anakin knew she was right. He might have had a miserable day, but Padmé had been captive, pregnant, for six months and he would never forgive himself for not realizing that the woman at his side was a clone all along. He wondered if she knew she was being replaced, if she ever thought why he didn’t come for her, for them. _Babies…_ he couldn’t wrap his head around it yet. He took a deep breath, as per his former Padawan’s instruction and nodded. “Okay.”

Ahsoka entered the security code and the door opened. “Go be with your family,” she said with a smile. “You’ve earned this.”

“Ani?” Padmé’s hoarse voice came from around the corner. “Ani, is that you?”

His heart shattered at the same time that he felt a huge weight being lifted from his soul. Anakin had spent the entire trip to Alderaan coming up with a plant to search and find Padmé, never imagining that _this_ would be the scenario that would meet him. He entered the room, trembling and basically ran to his wife, his _real_ wife, and took her hand. He didn’t even realize he was speaking, but he kept hearing himself saying _‘I’m so sorry’_ over and over again as tears streamed down his face.

“Shhh,” Padmé soothed, even as she started crying too and she moved their joined hands to rest on top of her stomach. Beneath the medical gown, two little shapes in the Force burned so brightly that it was almost blinding. “You’re here now,” she whispered. “We’re together.”

“I should have been here sooner, I should have come for you. For all of you. This was not the way it was supposed to happen, I should have been here,” he shook his head, the two little life Forces getting stronger by the minute. He could feel their eagerness. Their apprehension. The cry of the Force earlier had set them off and he was aware they wouldn’t rest until they were born.

“ _Ani_ ,” she said again, firmer this time. Her Senator voice, maybe even her Queen voice. “You’re here now. We get to meet them together.”

Anakin nodded as he gently caressed the skin of her stomach. “A boy. And a girl,” he whispered, a smile on his face, even if he probably looked like a complete mess. “They’re alright. You all are.”

“Luke and Leia,” she confirmed as an emdee came closer. “Do I push now?”

“Yes, Senator, on the count of three.”

“Do it with me?” Padmé asked, gripping Anakin’s mechno-arm with both of hers.

“Always. I’m right here with you,” he nodded and kissed the top of her head, closing his eyes and letting his lips linger. “Always, my Angel.”

“One, two, three, push,” the droid instructed and Padmé exhaled as her entire face contorted with the effort. Anakin squeezed her hand as he used the Force to pass her some of his own strength. He didn’t want anything to happen to any of them and he focused on letting his energy pass on to her, so it would be easier, if possible, for her. “Good, I’m starting to see the first head. Take a moment, and we’ll start again.”

“ _Now_ they want to take their time,” Padmé muttered.

“It was not their fault,” Anakin whispered apologetically. “The Force set the labor in motion and they were in distress. They’re fine now.”

“Well, then can you please tell them that Mamma wants her body back now and it’s time for them to get out here and meet you?” she asked. “I can feel the painkillers starting to wear off, _again._ ”

“They’ll be here soon and I’ll ease as much of the pain as I can,” he said quietly, kissing her forehead. “It’s the least I can do.”

“One, two, three,” the emdee counted down again and as Padmé pushed, one of the two little Force presences became _brilliant_. “And there’s the boy.”

“Luke,” Padmé gasped in relief, holding out her hands eagerly as the droid severed the baby’s life-cord and slapped him on the backside. The cry Luke made in response was deafening. “Oh, baby, it’s alright, I know the world’s scary, but we’re here,” Padmé gasped, accepting him from the Emdee and clutching him tightly to her chest. “Mamma’s here and Daddy is too. He found us, just like I told you he would.”

Luke’s cry was eye-opening to Anakin that had been transfixed on every movement the emdee made with his _son_. Something so little, so young, and that he didn’t knew about until minutes ago, was already taking a hold of his heart like nothing had had before. He gasped quietly as he reached out his flesh hand to caress the baby’s red cheek. He was tiny. Perfect. He couldn’t believe he had taken part in making him. Luke’s cries eventually died down as he felt the comfort of his mother’s chest and he settled down. _I’m right here, Luke._ _I’m not going anywhere, son._

“Is everything okay with Leia?” Padmé asked the droid. “I thought she’d be right behind him.”

“The longest time between twins is eighty-four standard days, Senator,” the emdee answered. “The second twin will come when they are ready. Take the time to recover your strength.”

“She’s not going to take eighty-four standard days,” Anakin replied. “She’s _minutes_ away,” he informed them, not taking his eyes away from Luke who had opened his clear eyes to look up at his parents. “I can feel her.”

“I wouldn’t mind an eighty-four day break,” Padmé said, trying to make a joke.

“She’s not that patient,” her husband replied with a soft smile, tracing Luke’s little head with the tip of his fingers.

“Can’t imagine where she gets that from.” Padmé shifted Luke in her arms. “You better take him so I can do this.”

“It’s better if the emdee does,” Anakin said, allowing the emdee to approach them and take the baby in its arms, Luke whimpering and sniffing at the change of warmth. “I need to help you.”

“Count,” the droid instructed. “One, two, three—” Before it could finish the instruction, Padmé gasped, and the second little person burst free, landing on the bed with a shriek that eclipsed her brother’s.

“Her lungs definitely work,” Anakin let out an amazed laugh as he felt her Force, just as brilliant as Luke’s, but while his son was a calming sea, his daughter was a raging storm. It was clear who had inherited his temper.

“You should take them to meet Ahsoka,” Padmé said, pushing back her sweat-stained hair with a smile. “I still have an afterbirth to deliver, and then I might sleep. For a month.”

“I should stay with you,” he declared, a hint of panic lacing his voice. “You might need me.”

“Ani, I’m fine,” she promised, pressing a hand to his cheek. “Just for a few minutes. The twins need you too.”

He still looked torn. He glanced at the two perfect little babies, being cleaned and wrapped in a warm blanket each. Leia was still whimpering loudly and Luke was quietly observing the space around him. Then he turned to his wife and the picture was unsettling, because it reminded him of a nightmare that had haunted him. “I know, but… I can stay, until you’re resting.”

“Anakin.”

“General Kenobi has been admitted into an adjoining room for treatment of his injuries,” the emdee said, apparently trying to be helpful.

Anakin sighed and slowly, released her hand. “I’ll take them to meet Obi-Wan.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Still, he feared that once she learned the truth, it wouldn’t be the case. Nodding he stepped away and walked over to the emdees. They helped him hold both twins at once and the emotion of holding his children was overwhelming. They were such beaming lights of hope… in a Galaxy ready to tear it apart. Sidious knew about them, they wouldn’t be safe until he had been taken care of. This was why Sidious had Padmé hostage. His children. For one moment in time, Sidious had everything he had ever wanted.

He used what was left of his strength in the Force to make sure each twin was secure in his arms. Outside, Ahsoka rushed to his side and gushed over how perfect they were and how sweet the picture of him holding them was, even though Anakin clearly doubted her. He must have looked horrible and Leia was beginning to fuss.

“She looks just like you,” Ahsoka cooed. “Same grumpy face.”

“I think she’ll take after her mother when it comes to looks,” Anakin shook his head. “Do you know if Obi-Wan is conscious?”

“He had to be, Padmé took all the pain killers,” his former Padawan reminded him.

“Was Mace Windu with him?” He asked.

“No, he’s greeting Master Yoda. Who just got here from Kashyyk.”

“Wonderful,” Anakin said dryly. He couldn’t _wait_ until _that_ conversation happened.

“Given how many of us were just killed? Yes, it is,” she chided him.

“You don’t have to tell me that,” he said in a clipped tone. “I was _there_.” Anakin muttered walking over to the suite where Obi-Wan was admitted. He used the Force to nudge the door open and entered. “Can we?”

“Not if you tell me you’re holding my future Padawans,” Obi-Wan said as he lay on his side for the emdee to apply fresh bacta patches.

Anakin managed a smile. “I won’t tell you I’m holding your future Padawans, then.” He looked down at the babies. “Except that I am. I won’t have any other Master teaching them.”

“I’m not a master, I could teach them,” offered Ahsoka.

“There’s two of them. One for each of you,” he suggested.

“We’ll toss a chance cube for it when they’re older,” she joked. Obi-Wan just groaned. The emdee finished his work and left the five of them alone.

“Do you want to hold Luke?” Anakin offered to Obi-Wan. “You’ll like him, he has my wife’s temper.”

“Tempting as it sounds, I’m supposed to remain on my side for an hour,” Obi-Wan said. “Not conducive for holding infants.”

“Sorry… you’re right. I should take them to the nursery. You need to rest.” Not to mention, he had no idea what to do right now. “We all do, I think.”

“Anakin?” Obi-Wan shifted slightly, trying to find a more comfortable position. “No matter what happens next, know that I am fiercely proud of you and that I love you. My brother.”

Anakin's eyes stung with the unshed tears as he nodded. His Master, his brother, was trying so hard to show him support but he didn't know the worst part. He didn't know he almost betrayed them all. He felt disappointed in himself. “Thank you, Master,” he said quietly. Soon Windu would tell him and Yoda the truth. Padmé would learn it as well. Not only how he almost pledged to Sidious, but the clone… something told him his wife would not forget about it and he couldn't blame her for whatever decision she made.

“You don’t have to call me that, Anakin.”

“Right, sorry,” he whispered, adjusting the twins in his arms. “I'll check on you after I take care of the twins, okay?”

“Take your time. Be with your family. You deserve that.”

 _Do I?_ “I will. Do you know where the nursery is, Ahsoka?”

“Down the hall, first door on the left. I’m sure they’ll move Padmé in there once she’s done with her afterbirth,” Ahsoka answered.

“Thanks,” he whispered and left the room, following Ahsoka’s instructions. There were aides waiting for him and they accepted the sleeping babies into their arms.

“They are in good hands, Master Skywalker.”

“You should allow an emdee to take care of you as well.”

Anakin shook his head. “It's not necessary.” Two women wearing the Alderaanian crest on their clothes came through the door behind him, pulling a hover-stretcher with Padmé lying on it, her stomach back somewhere nearer the size Anakin remembered.

“Hi, Ani,” she mumbled. “Next time, we’ll do it better.”

“She’s a little out of focus from the labor and the medications she was on,” one of the women explained. “But it’s nothing a good night’s sleep and healthy meals won’t fix.”

“Thank you,” he smiled at them before leaning down to kiss her forehead. “Rest, Angel. I love you. You're everything to me.”

“Missed you,” she agreed. “Babies?”

“Safe and sound. Sleeping.”

“Sleep sounds nice. You do it too.”

“I have time,” he smiled weakly. “I'll be right here when you wake up, love, I promise I'm not going anywhere.”

For a moment, she said nothing, just looked at him with those brown eyes that were somehow clear, even after months of being held hostage and however long she’d been in labor. Then she said, “I know.”

“I love you,” he repeated. “You know that, right?”

“I know,” she said again. “I’ve never doubted that.”

“Don't forget it either,” he asked. “You're the whole reason I'm still here.”

“Ani, I’m really tired right now, I just had two babies.”

“Then sleep,” he smiled.

“Good night.”

Anakin took a seat in one of the armchairs and just enjoyed the silence. Hearing his wife breathe in, breathe out. The little snores from the twins. He couldn't sleep, his mind too active. He was going to enjoy the peaceful moments while they lasted. The next days, weeks, months… it would be their hardest yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year, everyone!


	5. You Gave Me Back My Power

Leia sneezed. It made a tiny little sound, but the way her entire body shook and her hands went up with the force of it was adorable. “I hope you’re not getting sick,” Padmé cooed as she picked her daughter up from the nest of pillows and blankets to bounce her. “Because then your brother and Daddy and I will get it too, yes, we will, yes, we will.” Leia stared at her with the brown eyes that looked far too big and wise for a days-old baby. “You have no idea what I’m saying, do you?” Leia burped in response.

“This baby is a saint,” Ahsoka whispered as she entered with a freshly changed Luke. “He so do _not_ takes after his father,” she snickered as she bounced a wide eyed Luke, his eyes were a strong blue, just like Anakin’s. “Speaking of his father, where _is_ Anakin?”

“I assume he’s talking with what’s left of the Order about whether or not he’s getting expelled,” Padmé said, her jaw setting slightly. “We still haven’t talked about what happened while I was gone.”

“Er… no, I don’t think he is. Obi-Wan was looking for him too,” Ahsoka sighed. “Besides, if they are going to speak about what happened in Coruscant, they should speak with us all.”

“That wasn’t what I meant,” Padmé sighed, stroking back Leia’s hair.

“I know,” she whispered. “How are you feeling?”

“Sore. The doctors said a lot of my muscles have atrophied because of my imprisonment. Combine that with the time I spent on the run, and it’s going to take a lot of physical therapy to get me back to normal,” Padmé answered, with a shrug. “Do you mind if we switch? Knowing Anakin, and the expression Luke’s making, it’s about to be feeding time.”

“I’m so sorry about that,” Ahsoka said and then nodded, taking Leia into her arms and allowing Padmé to take her son. “But I also meant emotionally… a lot happened in a short period of time. And knowing an imposter took over your life, has to be troubling.”

“Ahsoka, I really don’t want to talk about this right now,” Padmé cut her off firmly as she loosened the gown she’d borrowed from Breha so that she could put Luke to her breast just as he started fussing. “I need to talk about it with Anakin first.”

“Do you want me to find him for you? Leia and I can go hunting!”

“You’re welcome to try, he seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet.”

Ahsoka winced. Padmé wasn’t happy with Anakin and she couldn’t judge her, but she also felt bad for her former Master. She still had no idea what happened in Coruscant, but she knew it had to have affected him in a deeper level. “I’ll find him. Let’s go, Leia, let’s find Daddy.”

As Ahsoka and Leia left the nursery, Padmé held Luke a little more tightly. She knew they had to stop Palpatine as soon as possible, lest the galaxy grow too comfortable in its newfound tyranny, but she hated the thought of Anakin heading back into the fray. Especially now that the twins were here. What would happen if they failed now, if Anakin was killed, or captured, or worse, lost to Palpatine? She knew Bail and Breha were at work finding places to hide the younglings Anakin had saved, but at the moment, Anakin was technically the only living Jedi Knight in the entire Galaxy. And the Chosen One. Yoda wouldn’t want to lose him any more than Palpatine had.

There was a knock on the door and then Anakin entered, Leia cuddled in his chest, cooing happily. His gaze was wary and there were dark bags under his eyes. “I’m sorry, Ahsoka said you needed me,” he said rubbing Leia’s back gently. “I was in the gardens.”

“I do need you,” she admitted as Luke detached and she shifted him into position for burping. “And I need the twins here to remind me of what matters. Ani,” she swallowed nervously. “I need you to tell me what happened on Coruscant. With _her._ ”

If Anakin had been pale, his color only worsened as he thought about the conversation he was going to have. He knew they needed to speak about it. He knew that they couldn’t just brush past it. He focused on Leia and the way her little fists tightened against his collar and her legs kicked his stomach. “She was a clone, Padmé, she was exactly like you. I believed it was you,” he confessed quietly, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I had no reason to believe otherwise.”

“You were together.”

“Yes,” he admitted and it stung to do so. It felt like _cheating._ It _was_ cheating. He slept with another woman. Even if the woman was living her life, claiming her name, her position, her husband… it wasn’t the real Padmé.

“I’ll kill her.” The pat on Luke’s back to get him to burp a little harsher than it needed to be, and he whimpered, immediately snapping Padmé out of her icy focus. “I’m sorry, baby, Mamma didn’t mean to hurt you,” she whispered, hugging him gently.

“You haven’t seen the HoloNet, have you?” He said sadly, looking down at Leia and rubbing her back lovingly. “The clone is dead, it has been since the night we escaped Coruscant,” he could still hear her pleas. “Sidious killed her for failing her mission. However… he changed the footage and now I am wanted across the Galaxy. For murdering Senator Amidala in cold blood,” he told her.

“I see.” Padmé’s jaw clenched again.

“I did realize she wasn’t you, but it was already too late.” Anakin sighed as Leia began to close her little eyelids.

“I’m not angry with you.”

“You’re just disappointed.” He guessed, sighing.

“I’m angry with Palpatine. With that _thing,_ ” she corrected, the volume of her voice rising. “I’m angry that we weren’t able to enjoy the pregnancy together. I’m angry that this war went on for long enough, that we were kept apart so much that a clone _could_ fool you, and that Palpatine nearly succeeded in using our love to destroy us. I’m angry you were _raped_.” On the last word, she choked and shrank down to a whisper. “And I’m angry at myself, because it wasn’t your fault, none of this was your fault, and I love you, and I trust you, but right now, a part of me doesn’t know if I can forgive you.”

Anakin felt every word like an invisible stab. He could never hold her anger and her resentment against her. He couldn’t ask her to let it go because it would take them both time to digest what happened to them. He held back the tears that were threatening to fall and nodded, standing up. Leia was already asleep, so he laid her down on her crib with care, laying her blanket on top of her and tucking her in. “I understand,” he replied looking down at Leia and caressing her little head. Padmé didn’t even know what had happened between him and Sidious. Once she did, she might decide to never forgive him. “I really do. I’ll leave you to rest. I should meet with Obi-Wan and the other Masters.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she said again.

“Everything… was my fault,” he told her, staring her in the eyes. After all, Palpatine had set it up just so he would fall to the dark side, so he would join him. “I’ll come by later to see if you need help with the twins.”

“You’re their father, not their nanny. You don’t need a reason to see them,” she reminded him. “Can you help me up? I want to put Luke next to Leia.” Anakin nodded and came to her side, gently supporting her up. He knew she would need physical therapy to fully recover and he would try to help as much as he could, as she would let him. “Thank you,” she whispered, placing Luke down in the crib. He immediately rolled so that he was facing his sister. “Oh, baby, no, you don’t do that,” Padmé scolded. “It’s bad for you.”

“He just wants to be close to his sister,” Anakin said and his comm beeped. He sighed. “I have to go. I can’t avoid it any longer.” He turned off the communication.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Padmé said, leaning against the crib for support.

Anakin forced a smile on his face, and nodded before leaving the room.

* * *

“That’s enough for today,” Obi-Wan said, getting up from the ground. The Organas had given them use of a ballroom for meditation and the younglings slowly started to follow them. “I’m sure the Queen has lunch waiting for all of you, go on.”

“Master Obi-Wan, are we going to go home soon?” a little girl asked.

“Force willing, young one, yes, we will return to the Temple. As soon as possible,” Obi-Wan answered, unwilling to disappoint so many hopeful faces.

As the younglings started trailing out of the ballroom, there was a small chorus of ‘ _hi, Master Skywalker’_ as Anakin passed by them with a warm smile. He was happy to see them all healthy and alive. Had he been late to save them… he didn’t want to imagine, especially when he was a father now. “Be nice to Queen Breha,” he said and it got him a few giggles. Finally, as the last youngling ran out of the ballroom, whining that no one waited for him, he was alone with Obi-Wan. “How are they?”

“They’re doing well. The meditation helps for a lot of them. Gives them a feeling of consistency. How are the twins?”

“Sleeping,” he chuckled. “They’re perfect,” he added with a proud smile.

“At least until they become toddlers. Or so I’m told,” Obi-Wan chuckled. “You missed a rather colorful exchange between Ahsoka and Yoda.”

“Ahsoka and Yoda? I am sorry I missed it,” he raised one eyebrow.

“He offered her a chance to rejoin the Order and she said something along the lines of ‘not unless you toss the Code into the stomach of a Sarlacc.’ Only much more vulgar.”

“She did learn how to argue with the clones,” Anakin snorted. “I’m sure Yoda was scandalized?”

“Mostly tired. He keeps muttering something about Dagobah.”

“Thinking of retirement?” Anakin asked surprised.

“I don’t know. He’s being very vague.”

“If he feels it’s necessary, he will soon tell us his decision,” Anakin muttered. “Did you speak with Master Windu?”

“About what?”

Anakin looked genuinely shocked. “Has he not come to you? To speak about our confrontation with Sidious in his office? Or how he knew at all who Palpatine truly was?”

“He told me that you acted honorably. That you told him the truth, tried to heed the Code and do what was right. He told me that you saved the younglings in the Temple.”

“That…” Anakin frowned. “That was nice of him...”

“The last few days have put a lot of things into perspective. Ironically, without your marriage, Sidious might have succeeded completely.”

“I understand that. While I’m thankful to Master Windu for understanding and for not expelling me immediately from the Order, there is more to what happened that you deserve to know. As my Master. As… as my brother.” Anakin said with a deep breath.

“Anakin, what is it?”

“The only reason I discovered the truth about the Chancellor, it was because he revealed himself to me,” Anakin started. “He told me about Darth Plagueis. About the Rule of Two. He preached that the Jedi and the Sith were not so different after all and it was all a matter of perspective.”

“I have never heard of any Darth Plagueis.”

“A Sith so powerful he could command midi-chlorians to his will. Save people from certain death. Darth Sidious’ Master.” Anakin played with a loose thread of his robe.

“The dreams about your mother. You were having similar ones about Padmé, weren’t you?”

“I was,” he nodded. “I was so upset that the past was repeating himself. Once again showing me someone I love, dying, and I felt helpless. I wanted to know more about Darth Plagueis and his ways. I wanted to know how he did it, how could I learn to manipulate midi-chlorians, to save Padmé. It was all I wanted,” he confessed. “After he revealed himself as Dooku’s Master, he made me an offer,” his voice grew lower. “Sidious wanted me as his Apprentice. He said that my rage, my anger… it fueled my power and it gave me focus and he would help me control it. He spoke about how the Jedi were holding me back and how they kept undermining and undervaluing who I was, what I could do. How they feared me…”

“You believed him.” Obi-Wan was remaining unreasonably calm.

“He let me go knowing I had two choices. To tell the Jedi or pledge myself to him,” Anakin said, feeling tired. He sat down, sighing. “I went to Master Windu. I told him the truth. He left with other Masters to apprehend Sidious. I stayed behind but… I couldn’t stop thinking about Padmé dying… how I would once again lose everything for an Order who struggled to trust in me, who never even wanted me in the first place…” His eyes stung. “For once, all I wanted was to be supported without question. All I wanted was to wield the power I deserved and not be hindered. I wanted to be accepted. I went after Master Windu.”

“Anakin—”

“If I hadn’t been struck with a bolt of Sith lightning, Obi-Wan, I would have pledged myself to the dark side. I wanted it. I felt it giving me something I always craved,” he suddenly shouted, confessing. “One more moment and I would have become Darth Vader.”

“And the fact that you aren’t is a testament to your strength. You might not be the best Jedi, but you are a good man, you should never doubt that,” Obi-Wan said reassuringly.

“I’m leaving the Jedi. After Sidious is brought down, after we restore the Republic, I’m leaving,” Anakin cleaned his cheeks and stood up.

“I think your mother would be proud of you for that. And Qui-Gon.”

“For what, quitting? Being a failure at something that I should actually be great at? At not recognizing my _own wife?_ ” Anakin seethed. “I don’t want you to make me feel better. I only know I want Sidious gone. Because I know he will come after my children and I am not going to allow that to happen.”

Obi-Wan sighed, trying to remain calm as he felt Anakin’s rage bubbling in the Force. “Anakin, I’m not trying to make you feel better, I am being honest. You deserve to be able to walk away after this, to be with your children and your wife, and I think they would be proud of you for wanting to make that choice.”

“I don’t think Padmé is going to forgive me,” Anakin confessed, reigning in his temper. “She was in captivity and I was having sex with a woman that wasn’t her. It is not going to be something easy to overcome, if possible.”

“Anakin, both of you have been through multiple emotionally draining ordeals. We’re still in the middle of one. Things will get better, but it will take time.”

“If you have time, then yes,” he muttered.

“You don’t think she’s going to leave you, do you?”

“On top of sleeping with a clone and being unable to recognize my own wife, I have to tell her I almost pledged myself to the dark side. That’s going to be another fun conversation to have with her,” Anakin sighed, not mentioning to Obi-Wan that he would take Sidious down, even if he had to lay down his life first.

“I’m here for you, no matter what you do.”

“You can promise me one thing.”

“Name it.”

“If anything happens to me, you train the twins. You make sure that they train their Force abilities and that they don’t steer from the path,” Anakin asked. “You will listen to them. Help them. Make sure they do not fail as I did. Promise me.”

“I think that will be up to their mother too, she might not want them to be Jedi.”

“But they might be missing a father and there are going to be certain aspects she won’t be able to help them. I’m not saying that they have to be Jedi, but they will need to learn how to wield the Force. To protect themselves.”

“Am I allowed to have Ahsoka’s help?”

“Help?” He snorted. “Sure, if you say so,” he smiled.

“She would kill me if she wasn’t included.”

“Thank you, Obi-Wan. I’m much calmer knowing they will have you and Ahsoka.”

“But it won’t come to that,” his former master said firmly. “They will have _you._ ”

“I’ll do my best,” he smiled, appreciating Obi-Wan’s effort in supporting him.

“Master Skywalker! Master Kenobi!” Liam ran in, his face smeared with jam. “The Queen is giving us cake! You should have some!”

“At least someone is having fun,” Anakin chuckled.

“Queen Breha is in her element,” Obi-Wan agreed with a surprisingly merry twinkle in his eyes, bending down to Liam’s level. “Perhaps you should go make it into a liquid, Liam, for Master Skywalker’s new babies.” Liam couldn’t have looked more amazed if he’d been told there was a planet made out of candy.

“You have babies, Master Skywalker?” he asked, looking at Anakin with wide eyes.

“I do. But if I try to give them liquid cake, their mother might be very, very mad at me,” Anakin laughed. “Possibly maim me.”

“Can we see them?”

“They are asleep now, but I can bring them to the next class that you have,” Anakin suggested. “You can meet them then.”

Liam gave him a big smile that showed a gap in his teeth. “I want to be just like you when I grow up, Master Skywalker.”

“You know, Liam, I hope you are better,” Anakin said, ruffling his hair. “You’re already pretty amazing,” he smiled genuinely at the little boy, who now looked like he was going to burst with delight. “Go eat more cake before your friends steal it all.”

“Yes, Master Skywalker!” Liam ran out happily and Obi-Wan chuckled.

“You’re a natural father,” he complimented.

Anakin beamed. “I hope so. I want to be the father my children deserve.” He rocked on the balls of his feet. “Your support means a lot to me, Obi-Wan. I know I was not easy. Far from it. But I am only a good man, because of you. After all, you raised me and… and I’m very thankful that you are by my side.”

“I suppose I feel a little guilty. If I’d done a better job of listening to you and supporting you, Sidious might not have had so many opportunities to try and turn you,” Obi-Wan admitted. “The more I think about it, the more I realize that we did fail you. We failed Ahsoka. We’ve failed the Galaxy.”

“Nobody's perfect and you did your best, Obi-Wan. What you said… about Qui-Gon being the best teacher for me… it made me realize that many of your decisions might have been influenced by that. Just like a lot of my irrational anger was caused by knowing that I was imposed on you. That I was a burden that you had to carry because your dying master asked you to.”

“Qui-Gon might have been the greatest Jedi who ever lived. And we never knew it until it was too late,” Obi-Wan sighed. “I wasn’t ready to be a master, so I tried to be what I thought the Order would want, rather than what Qui-Gon knew I could be. If I do train Luke, I will do better for him. For all of us.”

“Then I know my son will be the greatest Jedi who ever lived,” Anakin smiled gratefully. “Ahsoka might want to compete with you, while training Leia, so I think it will be a tight race, but I know they are in good hands and that’s all I could ask for.”

“Give it time,” Obi-Wan told him with a smile. “She’ll forgive you. She loves you.”

“I truly hope you are right, Obi-Wan,” Anakin nodded. “What if we call back our younglings for some lightsaber practice? I’ll teach!” He jumped to his feet. “I could use the distraction.”

“You teaching every youngling left in the Galaxy,” laughed Obi-Wan. “Pinch me, I might be dreaming.”

Anakin just grinned. “At least I’ll teach them something fun.”

“I did not realize _fun_ was something that needed to be taught.”

* * *

“Speak with you, may I?”

Padmé looked up to see Yoda in the nursery doorway, leaning on his walking stick. “That depends on what you have to say, Master Yoda.”

“Your children, strong they are. Strong, their father is.”

“I missed the cutoff for Jedi eligibility by one hundred,” Padmé said dryly, moving to sit in the rocking chair next to the crib. "So I'm not surprised."

“Awaits them, a great future does,” he walked further inside the nursery, his walking stick echoing the silent room.

“I hope you’re not suggesting what I think you are.”

“Trained, they should be.” Yoda nodded, his green eyes glancing at the crib.

Padmé’s hand clenched the edge of the crib until her knuckles turned white and her anger radiated so brightly that the twins woke up and started crying. “No,” she said through clenched teeth, leaning over to soothe them. “Shhh, shhh, it’s okay. Mamma’s here, everything’s okay. No one’s taking you from me and Daddy.”

“Guided, they must be, Senator Amidala.”

“Forgive me, Master Yoda,” Padmé reluctantly turned away from the children so that she could loom over the little green Jedi, “but I spent the majority of my pregnancy hearing Darth Sidious gloat at me about how the moment they were born, he was going to rip my children away from me and raise them to be perfect Sith Apprentices. I refused to let that happen, and I am refusing to let the Jedi have them either. They are _my_ children, mine and Anakin’s. The Order doesn’t get to take them.”

“Take them, we will not. Reformed, the Order will be. Trained for their protection, they should be. Harm, I do not wish them,” Yoda said calmly. “Better with you, these children are. One of a kind, force twins are.”

“But the end is the same. You want them. You want to use them, like you used Anakin.”

Yoda closed his eyes in concentration. “Regret our actions, we do. Showed great maturity and skill, young Skywalker does. Win against Darth Sidious, he will.”

“You’re doing very little to disprove my feelings on the matter, Master Yoda. You’re treating people like weapons.”

The Grand Master eyed her wisely. “Need you, he does. Challenging future, he will have. But a great one, it will be. Retire, I will, to Dagobah. A new Order, established will be. The future, young Skywalker is.”

“I might have been imprisoned for six months, but I know empty political promises when I hear them,” she said bluntly. “Until I see proof, you need to get out.”

“Strong you must be, Senator. Depends on it, the Galaxy does,” Yoda said, sounding a bit amused as he abided by her request and left the nursery.

“Shifty little schemer,” Padmé muttered, carefully picking up Leia, then Luke. “Sorry about that, Mamma didn’t mean to upset you, Master Yoda’s just being a nerfherder.”

“Were you just yelling at Master Yoda?” Ahsoka asked, poking her head in at such an angle that her montrals were perpendicular to the ground. “Add Anakin in there, and that’ll be three times for him today.”

“I wouldn’t say I yelled.”

“You can admit it. I did it too earlier. I think he has come to realize he is not very accepted at the moment,” Ahsoka snickered.

“He was being exceedingly tactless. The twins can’t do _anything_ on their own, and he wanted to talk about their future training.”

“That’s all Yoda can think about. Training new Jedi. I know you and Skyguy will never allow it to happen. Besides if someone is going to train these Skybabies, it’s me and Obi-Wan according to a whole different set of rules,” Ahsoka tickled Leia’s chin and the baby hiccuped. “That’s my little Skygirl.” Leia just stared wide-eyed at the Togruta. “Anakin and Obi-Wan are having fun with the younglings. I don’t know if they are doing saber practice or if Anakin and Obi-Wan are just showing off their lightsaber skills to the kids,” she commented.

“It might be both.” Padmé sighed. “Ahsoka, I should forgive him, shouldn’t I? Anakin, not Yoda.”

“Padmé, he can’t judge you for being reluctant. Or hurt. It’s natural after everything you went through. He loves you and he will wait for you to digest what happened and come to terms with it. Then, when you’re ready, the two of you can finally have the happiness you deserve,” Ahsoka said as she took Leia to herself.

“He was raped,” Padmé muttered to herself, holding Luke all the tighter. “She used my face to trick him into sleeping with her, and I can’t find it in me to forgive him for something that wasn’t his fault.”

“All I know is that he loves you. More than anything in this Galaxy. He understands your reasoning and he’s not going to pressure you into feeling something you’re not ready to,” Ahsoka said softly. “All of you were manipulated. You need to forgive him. He needs to forgive himself.”

“He won’t do it until I do,” Padmé groaned. “I already feel awful, but I can’t face him.”

Ahsoka sighed. “You can’t force yourself to forgive him, Padmé. It won’t be real. He will know it and it will be worse.”

“I should talk to Bail. The world needs to know I’m alive, they need to know what Palpatine did to us.” Padmé laid Luke back down in the crib, kissing him on both cheeks. “I won’t let him keep using us like this.”

“Go, I’ll take care of the Skybabies!”

“If they scream and won’t stop, come find me. They might be hungry.”

“Got it. Go do what you do best. We’ll get along perfectly fine.”

Right at that moment, Luke started wailing and Padmé smiled impishly. “I’m going to guess he needs changing. Good luck with that. I’ll see you later.”


	6. No One Can Change Me

“Bail, I don’t understand why you summoned us all here,” Mon Mothma said as she and the other members of the Delegation of 2,000 took their seats. “We’re all distressed by what happened, but isn’t it risky to be gathering like this?”

“I’m the one who wanted you all here,” Padmé said from the doorway, triggering a wave of gasps as she walked in, flanked by Anakin and Obi-Wan, who were there just as much to make sure that she didn’t fall. The only reason she was able to walk at all was the set of braces bound around her legs for extra support.

“What is this?” Giddean Danu demanded, standing up indignantly. “Senator Amidala is dead, we saw her body lying in state at the Senate!”

“You also saw a recording of me killing her,” Anakin answered calmly. “Which did not happen. Six months ago, Chancellor Palpatine abducted Senator Amidala and replaced her with a clone, in order to gain political favor. The dead body you saw was of the clone, not the real Senator,” he explained.

“Bail, you don’t actually believe this, do you?” Mon asked incredulously.

“I trust my wife, and she says that Senator Amidala came here with Ahsoka Tano around the same time the Jedi started getting executed,” Bail answered calmly, opting not to mention Padmé’s pregnancy. “And we have all suspected Palpatine’s ambitions for a long time. It never sat well with me that Padmé became his right hand overnight.”

“I’m disappointed no one else noticed enough,” Padmé said as she took one of the empty seats. “Do you all think so little of me as to believe I would betray the democratic ideals I’ve upheld all my life?” Then she cringed, remembering Anakin was right next to her.

Her husband, however, maintained his stoic posture, only a muscle in his jaw twitching. “Before the Chancellor murdered the clone, she admitted she was Unit PNA-1. She confessed to having been commissioned by the Chancellor.”

“I can vouch for Anakin’s word,” Obi-Wan said diplomatically. “I shared the same concern as Bail, given the shift of the Senator’s alliance. When I confronted her, she attacked me, wounding me and had it not been for Master Skywalker, she would have most likely killed me under the Chancellor’s Order 66.”

The other Senators exchanged uncomfortable glances, silently deliberating. “This is not ideal,” Fang Zar finally said. “Many of us have had to remove our names from the Petition of 2,000 since Chancellor Palpatine declared himself Emperor.”

“There’s no need to mince words here,” Bail promised emphatically. “And I think we should all be calling him by a different name. Darth Sidious, I believe you said it was?” He looked at Padmé, Anakin, and Obi-Wan, who all nodded gravely.

“That was what the clone called him before he killed her.”

“How could he possibly be a Sith Lord?” Garm Bel Iblis asked incredulously. “I despise what he has done as much as anyone else here, but the thought that any Force user could sustain a decades-long career on Coruscant without the Jedi’s notice is absurd. Impossible.”

“He is incredibly strong and skilled in concealing himself,” Obi-Wan retorted calmly. “Senator, we are wasting precious time, a strike needs to be made, for the good of the Galaxy.”

“We need to act fast and eliminate him swiftly. The Galaxy does not need any more war.” Anakin said.

“Do we have the resources for a siege? The Jedi have been wiped out and the clone armies answer only to Palpatine,” Bana Breemu lamented. “Even if all our planets volunteered their full forces, it would not be enough. We would be labeled as traitors.”

“We were that to him from the start,” Padmé pointed out dryly, resting her temples on her fingertips. “And even if I were to reveal my survival, I doubt it would change that many minds.”

“Maybe not a siege, but a plan to take over Coruscant once more while dealing with our Emperor without a lot of noise being made,” Anakin suggested.

“General Skywalker, you are the most wanted man in the galaxy, surely you don’t think you can simply sneak back into the capital without being noticed.”

“I know for a fact Darth Sidious would receive me. I would be able to take him on a battle and defeat him on my own while having him confess to all of his crimes,” Anakin replied. “It is our best option. To trust his arrogance.”

Padmé got up and slowly began to walk out of the room, shaking her head.

“It is our  _only_ option,” Anakin insisted, watching her walk away.

“I understand it is,” she said without looking back at him. “But that doesn’t mean that I like it.”

“It is our duty, isn’t it, Senator?” He asked quietly. “To save the Galaxy.”

“General, I don’t need to be lectured about duty. I simply think this is reckless, ill-advised and has a small chance of success.”

“Well, most of my plans are like that, and they usually work,” Anakin quipped and Obi-Wan snorted. “Besides, the only advantage I have working for me at the moment is,” he paused and licked his lips. “Is that he still wants me to be his Apprentice and the offer is still standing. He will be arrogant in allowing me to get closer, he will feel victorious and just as he becomes distracted, I will strike.”

“You underestimate _him_!” Padmé’s knuckles turned white as she grabbed the back of the nearest chair for support. “Just as I did when his agents broke into my apartment, killed my attendants and replaced me with that clone! He’s been planning this coup for more than a decade!”

“ _He_ is the one that will underestimate me, like everyone does,” Anakin narrowed his eyes. “Sidious believes that my connection to the Light side is weak and that I’ll easily pledge to him. It won’t be difficult to convince him. If you have _any other_ ideas on how to get close enough to the _Emperor_ so we are able to kill him, be my guest!”

“Anakin, please,” Padmé’s voice cracked, forgetting that they were not alone. “Don’t. Don’t make us go through this.”

“What if we adjourn this meeting?” Bail interrupted the quarrel between the couple, standing up. Anakin bit his tongue as he scowled at the floor. Obi-Wan sighed, rubbing his chin. “We can continue these discussions later, meanwhile, you are all welcome to stay in Alderaan, under our protection.”

“No, please, don’t stop on my behalf,” Padmé said coolly as she took the final steps towards the door. “I thought I was sufficiently recovered, I can see now that I was wrong. Excuse me.” And with that, she left, with five Senators now staring curiously at Anakin.

“Senator Amidala seems very keen in keeping you alive, General Skywalker,” Mon Mothma raised one eyebrow.

“That is what wives are for,” Obi-Wan pursed his lips as he saw Anakin stare at the spot where Padmé had disappeared from. “Or so I’ve been told.”

“Breha does it constantly,” Bail confirmed. “General Skywalker, I do think your plan has merit, and if Sidious has an interest in taking you alive, I don’t doubt you can get to him, but how can you be sure you won’t be disarmed in the process? You’ll need a lightsaber to fight him.”

Anakin sighed. “I admit, I will have to be creative.”

The doors flew open with a bang, revealing Ahsoka standing triumphantly in the hall. “Or just use the right clones,” she said smugly.

“Did you never teach her about eavesdropping?” Obi-Wan whispered to Anakin.

“I did it as well as you did to me,” he whispered back with a smirk.

Ahsoka cleared her throat as she circled the table to take Padmé’s vacated seat. “The clones follow orders because of inhibitor chips. Those chips can be removed.”

“Or deactivated in Kamino,” Obi-Wan suggested. “Thousands and thousands of troops are scattered across the Galaxy, removing all of the chips would be far too complicated.”

“But if we sent a team to Kamino to deactivate them and annul the orders given by Palpatine, they would return to their normal selves,” Anakin continued the idea.

“Or,” Ahsoka interrupted, snapping her fingers to regain everyone’s attention. “We could just contact three troopers that I know already have their chips out and use them.”

“Are you talking about Rex and his guys?” Anakin raised one eyebrow at Ahsoka, a smile forming itself on his lips. She shook her head, her montrals swaying back and forth as she did.

“Rex, yes, but not everyone in the 501st. It’s him, Wolffe and Gregor.”

“It will give us an advantage,” Obi-Wan pointed out. “Have you reached out to them, Ahsoka?”

“I can,” she said quietly. “But I’d rather not risk the frequency getting compromised. I do know where they are, though. Mandalore. Fighting Death Watch.”

“Mandalore,” Obi-Wan whispered mournfully. “I still have contacts there, if needed.”

“Alderaan can provide you with everything you need,” Bail offered.

“I can go with you,” Anakin said.

“General, you step one foot outside this system and you are taken in custody,”  Giddean said in a clipped tone. “I believe you are more useful _out_ of sight, don’t you agree?”

Anakin shot him a dark look and Obi-Wan laid a hand on his shoulder. “He’s right, Anakin.”

“I’ll go,” Ahsoka said firmly. “It’ll make talking to Rex easier. If we can get them on board, and steal some other troopers’ armor and equipment, we could fake you getting arrested and get you to Sidious with your lightsaber still on you, Master.”

“I’ve taught you well, Padawan,” Anakin said proudly.

“I think we can set up a frequency to broadcast effectively,” Mon confirmed with a slow nod. “I suppose this could work. But we have to make sure everything goes perfectly, or all of us will be executed as traitors.”

“We will make sure that that does not happen,” Bail said.

Fang turned to look at Anakin, his lips pressed into a thin line. “Are you certain you can kill him? Without a doubt?”

“I have to,” was Anakin’s answer. “There is no other option.”

“What’s that thing that Master Yoda says?” Ahsoka asked with an eye roll.

“Do or do not. There is no try,” Anakin replied with a chuckle.

“It seems that’s what we’re living by now,” Obi-Wan said. “Ahsoka and I will prepare for the journey to Mandalore, and Anakin?”

“Yes?”

“I think you should ask Master Windu to instruct you in Form VII.”

Anakin hesitated before nodding. “Yes, I believe you are right. I’ll meet him today still.”

“Go on,” Bail said, with a nod. “We’ll stay here and sort out the rest of the details.”

With a nod, Anakin abandoned the meeting. He knew Windu would be at the ballroom Breha had lent to them in Order for them to train, to teach, to meet with each other. It did not replace their Temple, but it was a space and they were grateful for it. He sighed as he thought about Padmé’s reaction earlier. He should find her later. Apologize for being insensitive.

“Oh, Master Ani! There you are!" He heard the familiar sound of metallic shuffling and looked over his shoulder to see Threepio coming towards him with Artoo in tow. “Miss Padmé is having some trouble with young Master Luke! You must come immediately!”

“What?” Anakin frowned, and panic overtook him as he rushed in the other direction, towards the room Padmé had with the twins. He knocked on the door before entering. “Padmé, Threepio found me. What happened?”

“Threepio overreacted,” Padmé sighed as she continued rubbing a towel over Luke’s head. “Luke didn’t like getting his hair washed and started screaming.” Luke hiccuped to punctuate her comment. “Everything’s fine.”

“He sounded quite distressed!” the protocol droid protested, and Padmé rolled her eyes.

“I take back calling him perfect when we met,” she said dryly, lifting the towel away and kissing Luke’s cheeks. Threepio made an offended sound. “Let’s get you all bundled up so I can wash your sister next.”

“Let me do that,” Anakin volunteered and extended his arms to receive Luke who had puffy eyes and still sniffled. “I’ll take care of him while you focus on Leia,” he said smiling warmly at his son.

“How can you even consider it?” Padmé asked as she passed Luke into his arms, then turned to retrieve Leia from the crib. Despite her brother’s shrieks, she had been unusually quiet.

Anakin kissed Luke’s temple and used the Force to sooth the rest of his distress. He wasn’t a fan of getting his little head wet, that was for sure. Luke cooed, rubbing his head in his father’s dress shirt. “Bundling up my son?” He chuckled. “I do love him, you know?” Anakin said teasingly.

“And yet you volunteered for a mission that might get you killed. That could leave him and his sister without a father,” Padmé said, carrying Leia into the fresher and closing the door before Anakin had the chance to respond. In his arms, Luke began to whimper, sensing the pain coming from his mother.

“Ssh, Luke, it’s going to be alright,” Anakin whispered with a sigh, as he rubbed his back and laid him down on the blanket, grabbing the little clothes. “You’re very sensitive, aren’t you?” He tickled his stomach. “You’re going to be even better than me,” he said as Luke fixed his blue eyes on him. “Your mother needs to have a little more faith in me, that’s all,” he smiled kissing his cheek. “You do, don’t you?” After the diaper, he dressed Luke in a blue onesie, before wrapping him in his blue blanket. The fresher door rattled as Leia began screeching, sending Threepio into a fit.

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!” he fretted, running around in a circle. “It sounds just awful in there!”

“Relax, Threepio, it’s just a bath,” Anakin laughed. “They’ll get used to the water, eventually. Don’t need to go into a frenzy.”

Artoo beeped something and Anakin snickered as he picked up a bundled up, sleepy Luke.

“Language, Artoo,” Anakin said with a smirk.

“I am not ridiculous.” Threepio declared. “Master Luke and Mistress Leia are under my protection as well and I will do what I seem fit. Master Ani, you do need to verify Artoo’s language, we don’t want the children catching on to his nonsense.”

Anakin shook his head and just gently swayed Luke in his arms, kissing his forehead as he saw his eyelids drop. “I love you so much,” he whispered.

“Take her,” Padmé said, coming out of the fresher with Leia’s head sopping wet. “She won’t stop squirming and I can’t do it, I’m afraid she’s going to break my nose.”

“Obviously, she’s sensing your distress too,” Anakin noticed and carefully laid Luke on the crib, before turning and taking his soaking, crying daughter from her mother’s arms. “There, little princess, why are we being so fussy, hmm?” Leia shrieked and slapped the side of his face and Anakin sighed, grabbing a towel to cover her as he rocked her for a little bit, trying to ease down her fiery temper. Leia’s shrieks became soft mewls, as he used their Force bond to calm her down. It was cheating, sure, but at least it worked. After she calmed down enough, he began drying her off. “You know,” He began as he set the towel on the bed and laid Leia down on it, to finish drying her so he could bundle her up as well. “You should trust me a little bit more. Have more faith in my skills.”

“It’s not that I lack faith in you,” Padmé said, removing her now-soaked dress and covering herself with a robe. As she moved, the japor snippet bounced on the cord around her neck. “It’s that I fear _him_. You didn’t see what I saw, Anakin. I don’t know that you understand how much he planned this, how long he has been playing this game.”

“From before the Battle of Naboo. I understand, Padmé. I do. He has hidden under everyone’s nose for a lifetime, he slowly turned the democracy you swore to protect into an Empire. I am not underestimating his skills and intelligence, I want to play those against him.”

“Do you think that stops me from worrying about you?” she asked, choking back tears. “Every day,” she swallowed. “Every day he had me held at Mustafar, he would have the soldiers guarding me put a comm into my cell. He would gloat at me, describe every horrible thing he had planned for you, for the twins. At one point, he suggested that he’d have the twins kill  _you,_ as their final test. The only thing that kept me sane was the thought of getting back to you.”

Her speech hurt, of course, he focused on Leia’s perfect features and on getting her dressed, with much more effort since she squirmed a lot more than her brother, and wrapped tightly, and safely, in her blanket. “I’m sorry,” it was all he could say. “It was his way of torturing you. Of making you feel helpless. To me, he manipulated my dreams. Made me watch countless times how you would die in agony, just to get me to plea for his help, so he could get me to his side,” Anakin explained. “And he almost did, Padmé, he almost convinced me that the dark side was my only option. I wanted to be his Apprentice.” He finished wrapping Leia and stood with her in his arms.

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” she asked incredulously.

“Let me finish,” he threw her a look. “I didn’t. I am here today, still me. Still Anakin Skywalker. I did not become Darth Vader, or have any intention. After the whole ordeal in Coruscant, the dark side became unappealing to me. I don’t crave it, I don’t lust for it. I know who I am. I know what matters. I am not confused anymore and I don’t fear myself,” he said rocking Leia. “That’s my greatest advantage in this sick game of his.”

“He might realize you found me. That the children have been born. He’s still looking for them.”

“One more reason to deal with him as fast as possible. We have a solid plan, Padmé and as much as it might suck to admit it, I am the only one capable to killing him,” Anakin sighed and with Leia already asleep, he set her down next to her brother. “I will do it. For you. For the twins. To avenge what he did to us.”

“I want to believe you.”

“But you don’t,” he sighed. “I can’t do anything about that.”

“You can come back,” she said bluntly. “And never leave us again.”

“I want to come back,” he repeated. “I want to come back and have us move to Varykino without a return date,” Anakin sighed. “But I will do whatever’s necessary to eliminate him first.”

“Don’t make us lose you.”

“I don’t want to make a promise I can’t keep, but you have to know I will do my best, my very kriffing best to return home because I want this. I want you, I want to be a father and I want a quiet, peaceful life in our house. But I also don’t want to lie and say I will definitely return home, because if I need to sacrifice my life, so you and the twins can live in a Galaxy without war, without darkness… I will.”

Padmé’s fingers clutched the japor snippet so tightly that her knuckles turned white. “Ani, don’t even entertain that thought. You’re not allowed to die, do you hear me? _You’re not allowed._ I can’t lose you again.”

“It’s the worst case scenario,” he said in a soothing voice. “I don’t want to die and I am too stubborn for it too. Let’s focus on the good side of this plan, killing Sidious and recovering the Republic. Moving to Varykino. Doing picnics near the lake. Watching the twins grow up. Okay? Let’s think about that.”

“You’re not allowed to die,” she repeated severely, reaching out and taking his hand. “You have to promise me, Ani.”

“I promise I will do everything in my power to return home,” he said, squeezing her hand. “To you and the twins.” Padmé closed her eyes and nodded grimly.

“Then do it.”

* * *

 Anakin cringed as Ahsoka tightened the cuffs around his wrists. “Really, Snips? They need to be _that_ tight?” He could barely move his wrists.

“Hey, we wanted to make it look real, don’t we?” Ahsoka smirked, letting her Master know she was enjoying this part a bit too much.

“You’re cutting into my skin,” Anakin scoffed.

“Are we allowed to hit you?” Wolffe snickered, holding his helmet under his arm. Rex next to him snorted and shook his head.

“No!” Anakin replied sharply. “Only if you want me to hit you back, idiot.”

“I’m going to be back with the Senator, helping with the broadcast, but you remember the password for backup, right?”

“You sound like Padmé,” Anakin complained exasperated. “I know it. I’ve memorized it. Stop doubting me.”

“I told her I’d take care of you, and I don’t want her to kill me because you came home with a scratch on you.”

“You are making promises you can’t keep, Snips,” he sighed. “I’m going to be fine. You take care of her and don’t let her do anything dangerous. Please, Ahsoka.”

“She’s shut up in the nursery with the twins,” Ahsoka sighed. “She doesn’t want to be paying any attention to this, she knows it’ll upset her.”

“But she knows this is the only way,” Anakin whispered.

“Sir,” Rex approached him. “The ship is ready to take us to Imperial Center.” Ahsoka rolled her eyes at the changed name. It had been blasting on the HoloNet, and the three troopers had been using it to try and get into the habit of saying it while they were undercover. “We should leave now if we want to meet the expected time of the events.”

“Make it hurt when you kill him,” Ahsoka said, giving Anakin a pat on the shoulder as she stepped back.

“Oh, I’ll do more than that. Hold everything together while I’m gone, Snips,” he winked at her, exuding Skywalker confidence.

“Like I always do.” She shook her head dramatically, then stepped out of their stolen Army shuttle. “Go get him.”

“Got the access codes ready,” Gregor said from the pilot’s seat. “Setting our destination for Imperial Center airspace.”

Anakin took a deep breath as the shuttle began to take flight. He knew it was a mission he might not return from, but all he could think about was destroying Sidious, and bringing peace to the Galaxy. To have his children grow up in a peaceful planet, without the looming threat of war or of an enemy who wanted to harm them. He would do everything to return to his family, he hadn’t slept or rested, training with Master Windu on Form VII. He’d trained night in and night out all the while spending as much time with the twins as he could.

“You might want to sit down, sir,” Rex suggested. “It’s going to be a while.”

He nodded and followed Rex’s advice. It was going to be a very long, long day. Artoo wheeled over to him and beeped once, before playing a transmission of the younglings very carefully using the Force to pass the twins back and forth over a sea of pillows. Both Luke and Leia were giggling and squirming as it happened while in the background, Padmé and Queen Breha were hovering worriedly, eventually taking the twins away, despite the younglings’ wails.

“Cute little things,” Rex said. “You’re very lucky, sir.”

“I know. This is for them.” The shuttle trembled as they made the jump to lightspeed, and Artoo whistled, ending his playback.

“Got any more of those recordings, buddy?” Rex asked. Artoo’s dome spun. “Ah, that’s too bad.”

“I need to thank you in advance, Rex, for coming to help us with this plan,” Anakin said. “I know not many give it credit, but I am sure we are ending the Empire today.”

“I believe that, sir.” Rex sat down opposite him. “I hope my brothers can recover after what happened. That we can get those chips out of them and let them live real lives.”

“I know that that will be a priority. They are not to blame for their actions.”

“Let’s just hope the rest of the galaxy sees it that way.”

“It’s not going to be easy, but I am positive things will progress in the best terms. You know there will be people supporting the rehabilitation of the clones armies.”

“And some people thinking we should be terminated,” Wolffe muttered gruffly, cleaning his blasters from across the shuttle. “I’m not holding my breath.”

“The people will always have different opinions, all we can do is the best thing for every party involved. The clones are a part of this galaxy, just like any of us, and just because Palpatine decided to use them as puppets, it doesn’t mean that they should be executed,” Anakin defended. “You guys are my brothers. We fought together for three years. You are more than clones. Trust me, no one will fight harder for your rights than me. And my wife.”

“We wouldn’t blame you if you took a break. After everything that’s happened to the two of you, no one could say you don’t deserve it.”

“We are going to take a break, go home and raise our children, but we are people of action, we are not going to stand idle for a very long time,” he smiled briefly. “We would get bored.”

“That does sound like you,” Rex chuckled.

“While we take a break, trustworthy people will handle the restoration of the Republic,” he grinned. Artoo rocked back and forth, beeping and chirping wildly.

“He’s excited to be part of this.”

“He’s just happy that he doesn’t have to put up with Threepio exaggerations for a day,” Anakin rolled his eyes. “How is our ETA looking, Gregor?”

“Shouldn’t be more than an hour, General.”

The remaining of the trip to the Imperial City occurred without any hiccups. As they informed the central of their _cargo_ they were immediately cleared to land in the private hangar of the Palace. Which was actually the smoking remains of the Jedi Temple. Anakin had to bit his tongue. He may have had a difficult time with the Jedi, but it still had been his home. Trust Sidious to ruin something so sacred to the Galaxy, to the Order.

As they landed, everyone got in position, with Artoo staying back and hidden in the ship. The ramp lowered and Anakin was faced with thousands of clones, perfectly lined up and unmoving. Somebody was overreacting. Or fearful. The statues that had decorated the front had been defaced, reduced to rubble, and Sidious’ power radiated out from the entrance in all its sickly darkness. A trooper began to step forward, in armor Anakin recognized. _Cody._

“I’ll take it from here,” he said brusquely. “Dismissed.”

“All due respect, Commander, we wanted to present him to the Emperor ourselves,” Wolffe said. “We lost a lot of brothers catching him.”

Cody’s hand twitched and he hesitated, before standing down. “Proceed.” He said dryly.

“Thank you, sir.” Rex and Gregor exchanged a glance as they made their way into the Temple, Anakin dragging his feet in front of them, looking every part the annoyed and angry runaway Jedi. As he came before Sidious, one of the clones - he just _knew_ it was Wolffe - forced him down on his knees and Anakin scoffed, gritting his teeth.

“The prodigal Apprentice returns,” Sidious sneered from where he sat. It looked like one of the chairs from the Council Chamber. “All of this was quite avoidable, Vader. You still have much to learn.”

“I have resisted you once, I will do it again,” Anakin replied hotly. “You took Padmé from me and I won’t rest until I have her back,” he growled, fighting against the chains.

“Your defiance was amusing at first, now it’s just tiresome,” Sidious scoffed. “For all you know, I could provide you with a replacement and you would never know the difference. No one did the first time.”

Anakin was going to lunge forward but the chains kept him in place. He knows he surprised Rex and Gregor, since he promise no surprises, but he couldn’t help if he was a bit touchy regarding the clone subject.

“I won’t be fooled again. Not by you. Not by your lousy clones. My wife is irreplaceable and I will turn this galaxy upside down, looking for her,” he threatened.

“But without my help, she will be dead long before that happens,” Sidious gloated, rising from the throne and moving towards him. “The Jedi have blinded you, made you weak. You will fail without me. Just as this galaxy was failing until my Master put his plans into motion.”

“Your Master? The one you murdered?” Anakin snorted. “Must have been quite the relationship.”

“You will understand once I have taught you your place.”

“Sounds complicated,” Anakin rolled his eyes. “Do I look eager to be your Apprentice? What makes you believe I will turn to your side?” He taunted. “Why not just kill me?”

“Because it is what you were _made_ for.” Sidious gripped Anakin’s chin in his wrinkled old hands. “It is because of Darth Plagueis that you exist. The Dark Side is your birthright.”

“You lie,” Anakin replied quietly. “I do not belong to either side. The Force choose me to bring the balance to both. Neither is my birthright and neither is my downfall.”

Sidious struck him across the face. “I was a father to you when the Order maligned you. I have pushed you as I have so that you would realize the truth of your destiny, but you insist on acting like a disobedient child! The Trade Federation was less bothersome than you!”

“You did, didn’t you?” Anakin moved his jaw as he raised his chin again, defiant until the end. “You caused the Battle of Naboo. You manipulated Padmé to your liking. You manipulated me against the man that raised me. You manipulated me to feel nothing but anger and hate towards the Jedi.” He hissed. “You caused the Clone Wars for your entertainment and amusement.”

“Amusement?” The old Sith scoffed. “Hardly. I  _needed_ the Galaxy to tear itself apart. How else was I to accrue the power away from those fools in the Senate? How else was I to have everyone practically _begging_ for me to become Emperor?”

“No one was begging you to place the Galaxy in a dictatorship. People are suffering. They are oppressed and afraid. Do you think they will worship you? Obey?” Anakin countered. “You destroyed the Republic and since the beginning, you have made it impossible for the extraordinary ideas of some of the Senators to be put into place. You've ripped the humanity away from an army who was supposed to protect your people. You treat them, everyone, like puppets and you wanted to do the same to me. Well, too bad for you, that won't happen. I only have one Master, and that is Obi-Wan Kenobi. You _wished_ you were at his level.”

“And you will wish you’d taken my offer sooner.” Sidious’ fingers twitched and the Dark side hummed. The lightning was coming. “Consider this your first lesson, my young Apprentice.”

Sensing his trick through the Force, Anakin broke the cuffs that held his wrists and initiated his blue lightsaber, hidden underneath his robes, deflecting the lightning that had been shot from Sidious’ fingers. The lightning bounced back to one of the walls, making a piece of stone crash on the floor, damaging a few shuttles. “You were saying?” He cocked one eyebrow.

“Kill him!” Sidious shrieked.

When no one moved, Anakin smiled. Obi-Wan and Windu had completed their mission in Kamino and deactivated the clones’ protocols. Good. He was worried he hadn’t stalled enough. “Sorry, _sir_ , but my loyalty is to the Republic,” Rex said, and even though he had his helmet on, it was possible to hear the smile in his voice.

“You ungrateful child!” Sidious ignited his own lightsaber and launched himself at Anakin. With confidence and hours of painful practice in all the forms he knew, he deflected the blows and matched the Sith Lord in combat. “I swear to you, Vader, when I find them, your brats will pay for every instance of your insolence!”

“Is that supposed to shock me?” He snickered before turning serious, and delivering two blows that made Sidious take two steps back. “You will never lay a finger on my children, Sidious. Or my wife, ever again.”

“ _They will die_! Along with every Jedi whelp you managed to sneak away!” the Emperor insisted even as Anakin backed him further into a corner. “And you _will_ learn your place!”

“ _You_ will learn yours,” Anakin growled and with a swift move managed to cut the hilt of his lightsaber, destroying the kyber crystal in the process. “Do _not_ underestimate the length I will go to protect my family.”

Sidious cackled, tossing aside the lightsaber to put his hand directly on Anakin’s chest. “You underestimate your ability,” he croaked, sending a blast of Force lightning straight into Anakin’s heart. He screamed in agony, as he was thrown back with the force of the attack, laying, motionless, on the floor. Sidious sneered, stepping closer to view the result of his efforts. “I suppose now I’ll have to go hunt down Amidala and the children. It really is a shame. You could have been the greatest Sith this galaxy had ever known. Now, you’re just another dead Jedi-”

He was cut off as a blue saber went straight through his heart and Anakin’s own blue gaze looked steely into his sickly yellow eyes. “Goodbye, Chancellor.” He gritted his teeth as he drove the saber deeper into the old man’s body. He knew the blast of lightning directly to his heart was supposed to stop it, kill him, and it probably would still accomplish its final purpose, but not without Anakin accomplishing his.

“No,” Sidious whispered in horror as a shudder ran through the Force and his last breath left his body. Anakin let the hilt go as he felt the aftershock of Sidious’ death through the Force and combined with the own trauma his body was dealing with, he let the darkness envelop him.


	7. You Got Me Trusting My Light

_Ani. Ani. You need to wake up now._ Was that Padmé? Or his mother? It didn’t matter, his eyelids felt too heavy and his body too weak to fight the tiredness.

“Ani,” the voice said again. “Please, love.” And then there was a warm feeling, one that came without words, but radiated love and need and affection from two little sources. He groaned and tried to move, feeling like his body was dead weight. Anakin relaxed again with a sigh, but still in a slumber. He was so tired. It was as if he could hear his heart slowly beating and the blood rushing through his veins. “Ani.” A hand came to rest on his temple. “You did it, now don’t break your promise. Don’t you dare leave us.”

Anakin tried to fight against the looming tiredness and emptiness. He thought of a wedding in the balcony of Varykino, how the fabric of her dress felt underneath his fingers and how she was so warm and loving and how he never felt so happy. He thought about her, bathed in the moonlight wearing nothing but a white sheet and smiling up at him full of love and adoration. Then he saw her bringing to this world Luke and Leia and he thought about how it felt holding them, how serene everything was and… his eyes opened slowly, blinking confusedly. “Angel?” He whispered.

“Hi there,” she said with a smile. “You had us pretty worried.” In her lap, Luke and Leia were tightly swaddled, both of them looking at him. If babies could see that far. “There’s some very impressive scarring on your chest now.”

With a small groan, he raised his hand to feel the bacta patches over his chest. “I imagine,” he said with a sigh. “It felt awful.”

“I wanted to kill you when I found out what had happened, but then I remembered that you were alive and that was what mattered.” She took a glass of water from the bedside table and held it out to him. “Here. You need it.”

He winced as he began to sit up and accepted the glass of water, drinking every last drop. “It was not like I _wanted_ to get hit with lightning that should have stopped my heart altogether,” he mumbled defensively.

“A Skywalker plan in motion,” she said with a little laugh. “Well, the good news is that the feed went through to the HoloNet, just like we wanted. Whole planets were ready to rise up until they realized the clones weren’t controlled by the Empire anymore. And nearly everyone in Palpatine’s inner circle has been arrested. Including Captain Panaka, who, it turns out, was the one to tell him about you and me.”

“I hope he is given the worst possible punishment,” Anakin muttered bitterly. “At least, though, we are free now. Which means everything was worth it,” he smiled as he reached out a hand to caress Leia and Luke’s cheeks.

“The doctor said you should be clear to get out of bed in a day or two.”

“I feel fine, he’s overreacting,” he rolled his eyes. “Can I have one?” Anakin pointed at the twins.

“Take Leia.” She passed their daughter over, nestling her in the crook of Anakin’s arm. “There we go, Daddy’s got you.”

Leia pursed her lips until Anakin adjusted her position and she was fully comfortable. “Good girl,” he whispered as she cooed and he could feel how beaming she was in the Force. He smiled, running his fingers through what little brown hair she already had. There was a knock at the door, then it slid open to reveal Bail Organa.

“Am I interrupting anything?”

“No, he just woke up.”

“She was pretty insisting,” he said with a chuckle and then made a face, as hit hurt all of his sore muscles.

“I don’t blame her. After what you did, half the galaxy wants you to be the new Chancellor.” Bail laughed as he took a seat in one of the empty chairs.

“What?” Anakin yelped, jumping in his seat, eyes narrowed. Leia didn’t like being jostled like that, so she let out a little cry her father was quick to sooth. “Are they _insane?_ Politics is my _least_ favorite thing. That is _not_ going to happen!” He freaked out.

“I thought as much, but I had to ask,” Bail said, shaking his head. “Padmé, what about you?”

“I have months of physical therapy left to do and a family to spend time with, Bail. Much as being the Chancellor is a childhood dream, I would rather wait until my children are older. They need me right now. So does my husband.”

“Why don’t you take the seat, Senator Organa?” Anakin prompted. “You, more than anyone, is equipped with the right ideals and mindset to once again establish a peaceful and prosperous Republic.”

“I’d have to take it up with my own wife. And put it to an election, a real one.”

“That sounds like a step in the right direction,” Padmé agreed, pulling down the collar of her dress as Luke started to smack his lips in warning of a cry for feeding. “I’ll look forward to potentially rejoining a Senate with you in a few years.”

“I’ll let you two get some rest,” Bail said, getting back up from the chair with a bow of his head. “But every being in this galaxy owes you both a debt of gratitude.”

“Thank you, Bail.” Padmé smiled softly as the door closed behind him, leaving them alone with the twins. As Luke nursed from her breast, she began to hum softly, rocking him back and forth.

Anakin brushed his lips over Leia’s forehead and just contentedly sighed. It was if someone had lifted a system from his shoulders. For the first time in a really long time, he felt completely at peace. Of course, as a family, they still needed to work on a few things, but now, more than ever, he felt hopeful. There were no other looming threats over their heads and they truly had _time._

“I had a physical while you were still asleep. I’m healing well. They gave me instructions, and if I follow them, things should be fine for the future,” Padmé said awkwardly.

“That’s good and I’m sure with physical therapy, you will make a full recovery and it would be like it never happened. At least, physically speaking,” Anakin replied, completely missing the point of what she said. “They always gave you good prospects.”

“They meant for marital activities,” she corrected bluntly.

“Oh.” Anakin widened his eyes and decided to keep cuddling and looking at Leia. There were still in an awkward position when it came to their marriage and he really didn’t know how to react to that news. “It’s not like we have to worry about that for now.”

“It’ll be months, she confirmed.

“Exactly,” he shrugged. “You don’t have to worry about it. You just need to worry about recovering.”

“So do you. I don’t care what you think, I want you to take care of yourself. For the twins.”

Anakin nodded. “I will. I now have time to do it and I don’t see myself doing anything else but recovering not only from the past months' events but from the past three years. Let’s call it a work in progress.”

“Hmm.” The door opened again, this time without a knock beforehand, and Yoda shuffled in, Obi-Wan trailing behind him and looking rather guilty. Padmé’s grip immediately began to tighten on Luke. “ _Don’t_.”

“Padmé, let him speak,” Anakin asked quietly. “Master Yoda. Obi-Wan.” He nodded at the both of them, Leia sleeping in his arms, her two little fists near her face, ready to head to battle.

“An apology, the Order owes you,” Yoda said gravely. “Saved us, you have, Master Skywalker.”

Anakin was about to tell him he didn’t do it for them, but one look from Obi-Wan made him hold his tongue and rethink his next words. “I did what was right, Master Yoda. As I was always taught.”

“In the Order, changes there will be,” Yoda continued. “Failed, as Grandmaster, I have.”

“Age is unforgiving,” Anakin muttered as he looked down at his daughter. “I am happy that you are willing to make those changes, Master Yoda, as they will be important for the younglings. Emotions are not a weakness.” He looked at Padmé, Leia, Luke, and Obi-Wan. “They were what saved me in the end, after all.”

“A new code, we must have. A new Council,” Yoda said. “Retiring to Dagobah, I will be.”

“Who will take your place?” His eyes glanced at Obi-Wan with raised eyebrows. His Master more than earned the title and no one would be more equipped to drive the Order into a new era than him.

“For now, Master Windu. But the Chosen One, you are. A hand, you should have in shaping our future.”

“Me? Grandmaster?” Anakin blinked. It sounded less daunting than the Chancellor position.

“Force help us,” Obi-Wan said, a small smile playing on his lips.

“You and Obi-Wan both. Masters of a new Order.” Yoda corrected.

“Oh, that sounds more accurate,” Anakin chuckled. “It’s a great offer, Master Yoda, but for now… I will have to decline. I have a family to take care of. Two children to see grow up. A wife to take care of and a road to my own recovery.”

“I can hold things down until you’re ready to come back,” Obi-Wan offered. “Ahsoka has more than a few ideas.”

“Think she’ll hit me if I say she still has to go through the trials?” Anakin snickered.

“Without a doubt. But I think in the future, there might be many more Jedi who will want to follow in your footsteps, considering how the younglings all worship you now. We could use an expert.”

“When the time is right, I will come back. Just know that when you do,” he nodded towards Luke. “He’ll continue my legacy with you.”

“Master Yoda, please, don’t abandon me to another Skywalker, they will be the death of me,” Obi-Wan lamented, and Padmé rolled her eyes.

“If nothing is happening in the immediate future, can we _please_ have some privacy now?” she asked.

“Just think about it this way, so far, Leia is the one that showed more of a Skywalker temper and Ahsoka already claimed her,” Anakin chuckled. “But in all seriousness, we do need privacy. Go. We’ll catch up later.”

“May the Force be with you both,” Yoda said seriously as he began to hobble out of the room. Obi-Wan lingered long enough to give Anakin a quick hug.

“Enjoy Naboo,” he said with a smile. “You deserve that much.”

“You’re welcome any time,” Anakin replied with a smile. “This is your family too, brother.”

“I have quite a few younglings to wrangle here first. But we’ll see where I am later.” Obi-Wan placed a hand on Leia’s head, then Luke’s. “Good luck, to all of you.”

“We’ll need it,” Padmé murmured as Luke detached from her chest. “Ani, will you trade with me? Leia will probably want a turn.”

As Obi-Wan closed the door, Anakin made the change with Padmé and then put his son to his shoulder, gently tapping his back. Luke whimpered and sniffed, unhappy, legs and arms flailing until he burped and calmed down. “There you go.”

“The sooner we get to Naboo, the better,” Padmé sighed. “I’m sure my family will be delighted to finally meet the twins. And introduce you to them as my husband.”

“That is not going to be awkward at all,” Anakin sighed.

“Ani, you saved the galaxy. It’ll be fine.”

“I don’t think that will save me from cringe-worthy, awkward situations, but I believe you. I’m just hoping they’ll focus on the twins a lot more than on me.”

“We’ll see.” The way Padmé pursed her lips suggested that maybe she _wanted_ him to be faced with that awkwardness. 

* * *

Pooja stopped chasing Artoo when she saw her uncle— she couldn’t believe he really was her uncle, how could Auntie Padmé have not told them— standing alone in the gardens. “Uncle Ani!” she hurried down the steps to grab at his sleeve. “How come you’re not inside with the babies?”

Anakin knelt to her size and smiled, even though it did not reach his ears. “I thought you and Ryoo were keeping them company.”

“Grandma and Mommy are holding them,” Pooja answered. “And they’re really cute, but they’re also kind of boring. They just kind of stare at us.”

“Soon, they will be able to play with you two,” he laughed and ruffled her curly hair. “Were you having fun with Artoo, then?” His astromech beeped annoyedly, from somewhere.

“Yeah, I was. But now I want to have fun with you.”

“Oh, and what do you want to do?” He picked her up and sat her at his waist. “Nothing that would get me in trouble, I hope.”

“I dunno. I mean, why is Auntie Padmé mad at you?” Pooja asked bluntly, tilting her head to one side. “I know she is. I’m practicing looking at people’s faces so that I can be a Senator too.”

Force, even little kids noticed too? Was is that palpable? He grimaced. “I did a dumb thing and now Auntie Padmé is not sure she’s going to ever forgive me,” he lamented. “I am sure you will be an amazing Senator, Pooja, just like your Auntie.”

“You’re sorry you did the dumb thing, right?”

“Very, very sorry.”

“Does she know that?”

“I say it every day.”

“Then maybe she’s the one being dumb. I can tell her if you don’t want to do it,” Pooja offered.

“You’re very sweet, little one, but this is a grown-up thing and neither of us can force your Aunt to forgive me for my dumb thing,” Anakin said with a sad smile. “But it was a really nice offer.”

“I’m going to do it anyway,” she warned.

“No, Pooja, please,” Anakin asked. The last thing he wanted was for Padmé to think he had brainwashed her niece into his side.

“Whatever you did couldn’t have been that bad!”

Oh, he wished he could still see the galaxy through the eyes of a child. “Unfortunately, little one, it was pretty dumb. I am sorry but maybe that’s not enough and I have to wait.”

“But you still love her, right?”

“I will never stop.”

“Did you tell her that?”

Anakin sighed. “She knows that, Pooja. One day you’ll understand.”

“Ohhh, this is a pu-ber-ty thing,” Pooja said, sounding out the word and nodding as if she understood, which she clearly didn’t.

It made him smile. “Something like that. Go back inside, Pooja. Try to make your cousins laugh,” he winked at her, setting her down on the ground.

“Okay, Uncle Ani!” She ran back into the house, her curls bouncing as she got into the family room.

“Look who’s just in time to hold her cousins,” Darred laughed. “Which one do you want?”

“Auntie Padmé,” Pooja answered, completely ignoring Anakin’s request. “I wanna ask you some secret questions.”

“I suppose I can do that.” Padmé passed Leia over to Ruwee. “What is it?”

“No, we gotta do it in _secret!”_

“Honestly, she sounds like _you_ when you were her age,” Sola scoffed. “Very official.”

Padmé sighed and leaned on the arm of the couch for support to get up. “Alright, we can go to the library. Mom, how much time is there before dinner?”

“About ten minutes.”

“That’s fine,” Pooja said, grabbing Padmé by the hand and tugging her into the family library. “Why are you still mad at Uncle Ani?”

“I’m not mad,” Padmé stammered, caught off guard by how direct her seven-year-old niece was being.

“Yes, you are. I can see it in your face. I’m training. To be a Senator. You have a mad face and Uncle Ani has a sad face,” Pooja declared.

“Pooja, I’m not mad at him.”

“He says you are. He did a dumb thing and you don’t want to forgive him for the dumb thing,” she rocked on the balls of her feet. “But he feels really bad for it.”

“I know he does.

“Then why don’t you forgive him?” Pooja sounded really surprised. “He says he will always love you and that you know that.”

“Pooja, it’s complicated.” Padmé sighed in frustration.

“Is it? I think you are making it complicated. Unless you don’t love him...”

“Of course I love him. Getting back to him was the whole reason I was able to survive being a prisoner all that time.”

“Then forgive him,” Pooja said. “It’s simple. You kiss and you're happy again.”

“It’s really not that simple.”

“You’re being mean,” she pouted, crossing her arms. “And complicated.”

“Pooja, I know you’re trying to be helpful, and I know that Anakin didn’t put you up to this, because he understands that I need time.”

“If this is what it means being an adult. I don’t want to grow up. Adults stink,” Pooja muttered and stalked out of the library pouting. Padmé sighed, sinking into a chair as her legs started screaming in pain.

Sola peaked inside the library. “Is everything alright? My daughter is wearing her mad face and usually, she grounds all her stuffed animals with this mood. Why did you doom them, Padmé? Why?” Her older sister was trying to be funny, even though she understood the situation was something more complex.

“She thinks I should forgive my husband for being tricked into sleeping with a clone of me,” Padmé answered bluntly.

“She said all of that? Wow, she’s learning some big words,” Sola said as she closed the door and sat on the opposite chair of her younger sister.

“Fine, she just said that I should forgive him for whatever’s making me mad,” Padmé admitted.

“Why don’t you? Honey, I know you have your reasons and I respect them, but he was cheated as much as you did, wasn’t he?” Sola asked. “Have you thought about yourself in the same situation?”

“I have. And in every scenario I imagine, there isn’t one where I wouldn’t _know_ ,” Padmé answered bitterly. “Can _you_ imagine that, Sola?”

“I am sure he would tell you the same before all of this happened. We are all so sure we are not falling for a trick, so sure of our knowledge, our feelings… it’s when we are the easier prey,” Sola said. “Padmé, _we_ thought the dead Senator was you, and we're your family. We've known you all your life. He is your husband and he was desperate to be with you. When someone walks, talks and looks the same, you take a little while noticing the big differences. Especially when you spent most of your marriage apart.”

“Sola, stop.”

“I am done. And so is dinner. But this is just something for you to have in mind.” Sola stood. “Come. Mom never liked when we were late for dinner.”

“I’m not a child, Sola.”

“You haven’t stopped pouting,” Sola smirked before disappearing through the doorway.

“This is not pouting!” Padmé protested indignantly.

At the dinner table, Anakin was already sitting uncomfortably, flanked by Darred and a chatty Pooja. As he saw her leave the library, he threw her a wary glance before looking back down on his plate. Her family has been welcoming and very warm, but of course, he could notice the tension and the awkwardness whenever something more delicate was discussed. Sola finally arrived with Padmé in tow.

“You two will be headed out to Varykino soon, won’t you?” Jobal asked.

“After dinner,” Padmé confirmed. “I sent Threepio ahead to fix up one of the bedrooms as a nursery.”

Anakin didn’t say anything, he just narrowed his eyes, as he took small bites of his food, realizing for the first time they were going to be completely alone, with the twins, in a huge house, surrounded by miles and miles of lush, green lands.

“You know, now that everyone knows that the two of you are married, you might want to consider planning a new ceremony,” Ruwee remarked, tousling Luke’s hair. “I seem to remember never getting an invitation to your wedding.”

“Maybe we can discuss that later, when the twins are a little older and they can take part in anything we might consider doing,” Anakin replied flippantly. He didn’t want to speak about weddings or ceremonies when at the moment, he didn’t even know where they stood or how long they would speak with an invisible transparisteel wall between them.

“Dad, really,” Padmé sighed as she stirred the soup in front of her. “You know why you didn’t get an invitation. We were eloping in secret, no one got an invitation.”

“Exactly why you should celebrate now,” Jobal chided in. “Bring your family and friends together to celebrate your love. A vow renewal of sorts.”

“Please, Auntie Padmé, we want to go to your wedding,” Ryoo said in agreement.

“We’ll think about it, but right now, we’re just trying to rest,” Padmé said firmly. “Let that be the end of it for now, please.”

Ryoo frowned at her Aunt’s tone and focused on the food. Anakin sighed quietly to himself. It was not easy to admit things were not looking too good for them and that while he knew his wife loved him, she would probably never forgive him. 

* * *

Varykino was normally a paradise, but tonight, there was a storm raging. Padmé lay in the bed of the room that had been hastily converted into the twins’ nursery, clutching them tightly to her chest so that they would stay calm even as the thunder crashed overhead. Every time lightning hit, she thought of Sidious. He’d never turned that power on her, not when it might have jeopardized the twins, but the scars on Anakin’s chest were equally burned into her memory.

Anakin entered the room, sleepily rubbing his eyes. “Did the storm wake them up?” He asked, having felt the twins shriek for him through the Force, the intensity of the lightning scaring their young ears. “Here, give me one of them, see if we can put them back to sleep through this weather,” he yawned and sat on the edge of the bed, extending his arms.

She hesitated for a moment, then motioned to the empty space beside her with her head. “Sit here. Stay,” she whispered.

With a sigh, he stood up and moved to the top of the bed, sitting in the empty space near Padmé and leaning his back against the headboard of the bed. They have been alone in Varykino for a standard week and their lives have been revolving around the twins and _their_ routine. Settling a feeding and sleeping schedule, making sure they were settling in and undisturbed. Their conversations were just of the twins and plans for the twins. Anakin had been sleeping in one of the guest bedrooms, close to the nursery where she was staying with them and the bedroom they once occupied as a couple, was unoccupied.

He didn’t find her request to stay odd, after all, they were handling two distressed newborns and he wasn’t going to let her deal with them on her own. So, as he sat next to her, Leia’s little arms were up in the hair, reaching out for her father. Her eyes were puffy and her lips turned down in a pout. He could sense she really didn’t like the loud sounds of the thunder and the blowing of the wind outside, bothered her also. “Come here, princess, it’s alright,” he whispered as he laid her against his chest and covered her in her favorite blanket. Gently rubbing her back, he felt her start to relax and coo against his shirt, grabbing a fistful of it.

Using the Force bound that united them, he eased their distress. He wanted them to feel safe. They were safe. In their parents’ arms and he would never take it for granted. “Is it just me or have they grown a lot since they were born?”

“It’s not just you, we’ve been feeding them a lot,” she confirmed softly. “I wasn’t exactly eating well during my imprisonment. Just injections with the necessary vitamins and nutrients, and enough food to keep me alive.” Luke squeaked and squirmed in her arms and she adjusted him, pausing for a moment to get lost in the squinty little blue eyes of her son. “It’s a miracle that we survived.”

“But you did and that’s all that matters,” Anakin replied softly, guilty eating at him. If he only hadn’t been a fool... “You’re all alive, you are all recovering well and they will never have to suffer through something like that, or will remember what happened. I know it hurts to think about what happened, but, we need to let it go. Both of us, and focus on the twins moving forward. We are finally at peace and while it might sound unreal, we have to start living, instead of surviving,” he said as he felt Leia’s breath on his neck and knew she was about to fall asleep. “Give them the life they deserve.” _The life I could never have._

“Anakin.” Padmé bit her lip. “About the clone.”

“Don’t.” He tensed up and Leia’s eyes were wide open and she squeaked, just like Luke had.

“I’m sorry.” The two words hung in the air for a moment. “It wasn’t your fault, and it wasn’t fair of me to be angry at you. I love you, and I miss you, and I don’t want us to lose any more time because I couldn’t find it in me to forgive you for something you had no control over. I told myself I could never be fooled like that, but the truth is that I understand how it happened, and I know that I was lying to myself. With the way the war kept us apart, we were practically strangers to each other.”

Anakin was quiet, eyes fixed on his children as he relaxed and listened to her words. “You don’t have to apologize. We were both Palpatine’s toys and I should have realized the truth sooner. There was always something wrong… in the way she spoke, the way she saw the world… but I made myself believe that the war had finally done it. It had broken you just like it did me. I was so blinded on being with you, I didn’t see the flaws until I was too late and too much had transpired.” He said quietly. “I love you. More than words. More than anything. I was willing to sacrifice my soul to save your life and I wouldn’t have blinked twice. I know that nothing made me fight harder these past three years than you, but… do you think we did the wrong thing? Eloping after such a trauma? Inflicting ourselves this pain of being always apart and surviving death rumors?”

“I think we knew we needed each other and that if we didn’t do it then, we might have lost each other forever,” she whispered, moving Luke more clearly into one arm so that she could link her fingers tightly between Anakin’s. “Our marriage was a tether that kept our love alive. A promise we could hold onto.”

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “Our married life starts now. If we think about it, we never actually lived together, did we? Spending a few days over the course of weeks does not count as living together. There are a lot of things we need to do, but I know that we’re here. We have two breathtaking babies that complete us and love us unconditionally and you know what? I think your mother was right, we should do a vow renewal,” he grinned.

“Maybe in a year,” she agreed, resting her head against his shoulder as she moved closer. “But right now, I think we deserve time just with each other and our children.

“We have all the time in the galaxy, Angel,” he whispered and kissed her head. “Just us. Finally, a family. I love you, no matter what.”

“I love you, too, Ani,” she mumbled, her eyelids starting to flutter sleepily. “Always.”


	8. You Got Me Blinded By Love

“Daddy! Daddy, they’re calling the votes!” Leia shouted, running wildly around the apartment. “We gotta watch Mommy win!”

“Easy, Princess, watch where you’re running,” Anakin warned as he held his eight-month-old son, Jinn, who has just woken up from his nap. Jinn laid his little head on his father’s shoulder as he watched his older siblings run to sit in front of their holoscreen.

“Come on, Daddy! You’re going to miss it.” Luke whined, jumping up and down on the couch.

Anakin’s comm beeped and he sighed. “I’ll be there in five minutes. Stop jumping on the couch, Luke, before you get hurt and Leia, stay—”

“OW!” Leia shrieked as her foot came down on one of her brother’s toys. “LUKE!”

“You broke my X-Wing!”

“—still,” his shoulders dropped. “Quiet, you two,” he scolded as he accepted the transmission from the Temple. Ahsoka came on the screen.

“I know it’s the election results, but we could use you here, Grand Master,” she said before dropping the serious Jedi act to wave. “Hey, Skykids.”

“Hi, Auntie Soka,” Luke said as Leia sat on top of Artoo, making him wheel her over to Threepio for a bacta patch. “Leia broke the X-Wing you gave me.”

“You left it on the floor!” Leia shot back.

“Miss Leia, please, I am trying to put this in place,” Threepio fussed.

“As you see, I am needed here,” Anakin shook his head. “Can’t Obi-Wan handle it? It’s the results tonight and I promised the kids more family time tonight. Besides, Jinn is fussy and I think he might have a small fever,” he murmured as he kissed his younger son’s forehead.

“I’ll do what I can,” Ahsoka sighed. “Take care of him.”

“Thank you, Master Tano,” Anakin grinned. “I know that you can handle yourselves without me, I am not running a co-dependent Order, am I?” He winked at her.

“You’re the Grand Master, babysitting the rest of the idiots is half the job.”

“I’m glad I don’t want to be a Jedi,” Leia announced as she limped dramatically over to the couch. “Especially now that Luke’s crippled me.” Anakin rolled his eyes. Yes, that dramatic act came from his side of the family.

“Shut up!” Luke huffed, using the Force to lift his broken toy from the floor and bring it into his hands. “My X-Wing looks way worse than your dumb foot!”

“We’ll fix it, Luke,” Anakin said gently. “Ahsoka, I gotta go before they kill each other. Hold the Temple for me, Snips.”

“I’ll do my best, SkyGuy.” The transmission ended, and Luke and Leia immediately went back to scowling at each other, arms folded in identical displeasure.

“I thought we were watching Mommy win and I also thought, we had made a deal on your behavior,” Anakin raised his eyebrows at his twins. “Unless we are breaking that deal and I am grounding the two of you. No Jedi training or political lessons for two standard weeks. No Auntie Soka babysitting or piloting the ship with me,” he quipped and fixed Jinn’s hair, shrugging. “Your call.”

“Sorry, Daddy,” they chorused.

“What disaster have I missed now?” Padmé asked, emerging from the master bedroom in a shimmering golden dress that fell away from her shoulders without looking indecent. “Does this look too opulent for an acceptance speech? Or should I be wearing something more neutral, in case I lose?”

“One’s crippled, the other is broken, what else is new in this household?” Her husband replied beaming. “You look like a true Queen, love and you are winning, so you definitely need to shine.”

“Mommy, you’re gorgeous!” Luke said in an amazed voice.

“I wanna wear a dress like that!” Leia pouted.

“When you’re older, sweetheart,” Padmé said, looking at herself in the hall mirror. “I don’t know, it feels tacky—”

“And we can make our first call of the night, Padmé Amidala Skywalker has won the votes from Naboo,” the reporter on the holoscreen announced.

“Yes!” Luke pumped his fist, forgetting about his broken toy.

“We  _knew_ she would,” Leia pointed out, rolling her eyes. “It’s home.”

“Ma!” Jinn wailed on Anakin’s lap.

Padmé sighed and bunched her skirts together so she could navigate around the toys. “I thought I asked you to clean up,” she scolded the twins. “Let me take him, Ani, we’ll be back in a heartbeat.”

“He has a bit of a fever, I think,” Anakin sighed and passed the baby to his mother’s arms. “Nothing that you can ever wear, Angel, looks tacky,” he whispered, leaning in and kissing the corner of her lips. “Just don’t get too attached to it,” he winked at her.

“Anakin!”

“What?” He beamed, innocently.

“Well, now it feels more like a date night dress than a ‘becoming the leader of the galaxy’ dress.”

“Nonsense,” Anakin dismissed her concerns. “You are going to be the beacon of light of this galaxy tonight and you look stunning.”

“I’m changing,” she muttered, carrying Jinn away as she hummed the old Naboo lullaby that always calmed him down. Anakin pouted, he really loved how the gold dress fit her.

“Mommy’s belly looked weird in that dress,” Luke said bluntly. Leia rolled her eyes, summoning a piece of shuura fruit from the counter in the kitchen.

“It doesn’t look weird, it looks like she did when she was having Jinn,” she corrected primly.

Anakin caught the flying piece of fruit. “You two, pack up the toys. Now. No Force. Go on, clean up this mess.”

“Aw, but Daddy!” Leia whined. “I’m hurt!”

“No ‘but Daddy’, young lady, move your cute bottom and clean up. Your foot can take it. You too, Luke. Put the X-Wing aside so we can fix it, but move everything else to the right place.”

The twins gave each other withering looks as they obeyed their father’s orders. As they began to pick up their toys, Anakin thought about their comments. Could she…? They hadn’t exactly been saints since Padmé was given the all clear after Jinn’s birth. They always talked about a big family. The twins were five, Jinn was a perfect little boy, a blend of his parents and yes, they still wanted more. And in the two years since their return to Coruscant, they had been enjoying the best times, with him having fully taken control of the Order with the Grand Master rank and Padmé now set to become the next Consul of the New Republic. They could handle another baby.

“Ani, can you bring a fresh diaper from the nursery? We’re out in here,” Padmé called as Jinn started bellowing, the signal that he had soiled himself. By this point, both Skywalker parents spoke fluent baby and knew what every pitch and length of wailing meant. Anakin dutifully appeared in the bedroom with a clean diaper, as Jinn flailed around with his little arms and legs. He had inherited the Skywalker blue eyes, but his hair was brown and wavy, much like his Mom's.

“We didn't waste any time after Jinn, did we?” He said cheekily as Jinn grabbed one of his feet and blew a raspberry.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Padmé said, lifting up Jinn’s other leg so she could hold them in place while she removed the dirty diaper and wiped the last bits of the mess off his little backside. “Work never really seemed to stop, regardless of my pregnancy.” Jinn squirmed and tried to wriggle his feet free from his mother’s grip.

“You know I feel her, right? Nestled inside of you? Growing?” He smiled widely and came behind her, laying his hands on her stomach. He kissed the curve of her neck. “I'm not talking about workload.”

“Again?” Padmé’s grip released on Jinn’s feet and he took the opportunity to start kicking and beating his fists on the mattress. “Oh, Force, I hadn’t even realized. Are you sure it’s just the one?”

“Wait, you didn't know?” He asked with a wince. “Oops,” he mumbled and watched Jinn turn around and try to stand up, but ending up with his butt in the air, squealing.

“With the election happening, and the kids, I’ve just been so distracted,” she admitted, flipping Jinn right side up so that she could put the clean diaper on him. “And stressed. I figured that’s what it was.”

“Hmm,” Anakin focused a little more, pressing his hand on her stomach. “No, it's definitely a baby and I'm calling our anniversary as the date we conceived her…” he then paused and smiled sheepishly, “I mean, them.”

“Oh, Force,” Padmé groaned. “Twins again?” Anakin nodded, trying to look sober but he wanted to grin widely and celebrate like a little kid because he was elated at the news. However, his wife might use his lightsaber against him, so maybe hold on the excitement for a while. “Well, good, if it were triplets, I might die.”

“There's always the next time…”

“No, no, absolutely not,” Padmé shook her head as she swaddled Jinn and picked him up. “Five is my limit.”

“For now, I agree,” he grinned innocently and tickled Jinn's stomach.

“Oh, no, you’re not the one who has to go through giving birth to them. These are the last two,” she insisted, moving to her closet as she undid the back of her dress.

Anakin just winked at Jinn who blew another raspberry at him. Ahsoka was teaching him things, apparently.

“Mommy!” Luke ran into the room with his arms full of toys. “You just won Alderaan and Chandrila!”

“And Corellia!” Leia added from the hallway.

“Your Mom is going to be the new Consul just like we’ve been telling her,” Anakin beamed proudly.

“There are still a lot of votes to be cast,” Padmé scolded as she took out a blue dress with a cape. “What do you think of this one?”

“I like it, but I do love the gold one,” Anakin said bouncing Jinn on his hip as the twins ran off to put their toys away. “You’re glowing, Angel. You will make any dress look impeccable for the acceptance speech.”

“You’re not exactly an unbiased opinion.” She dropped the dress on the ground and examined one with pink silk laid over white and billowing sleeves.

He mockingly covered the baby’s eyes and eyed her hungrily. “No. No, I am not, but I am the voice that matters the most,” Jinn shrieked, annoyed and began slapping his hand away from his eyes.

“You’d like to think so.” Padmé slid the pink dress over her head in one fluid motion, fastening the clasp in the front, just under her bust. “But if I _am_ going to be Consul, there’s going to be a lot more voices involved.”

“MOM!”

“Remind me why we decided they could stay up for this?” Padmé groaned, twisting her hair up in a knot and jabbing pins into it. “They should be in bed. And have you seen the japor snippet? I wanted to move it to a new chain.”

“Because they wanted to celebrate you and didn’t I see Leia running around with it?” Anakin smiled.

“Could you get it back, please?”

“I think she claimed it or something,” he chuckled. “But I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you.” Padmé paused from her hairstyling to lean in and kiss him softly. “I love you so much, win or lose,” she whispered.

Anakin kissed her back until they felt a little hand pushing their faces away annoyingly. Laughing, Anakin pulled back to see Jinn frowning. “Your jealous little man says he loves you too.”

“Sweet baby boy, you’re going to have some competition soon,” Padmé cooed, holding out a finger so that Jinn could wrap his entire little hand around it. “Be good for me, won’t you? Don’t make trouble like your big brother and sister do.”

The baby's big blue eyes were fixed on her, as though he could understand what she was saying. Anakin smiled at the sweet picture. “I’m going to get the japor snippet. I love you, Angel.”

“Hurry back.” Padmé picked up another few pins and returned to the task of managing her hair.

“Mommy, how much is forty-five percent?” Luke yelled from the living room. “That’s how much you’ve got right now!”

“It’s almost half,” Padmé answered, finishing with the pins and moving towards the couch to see for herself. “But that doesn’t mean I’ve won, sweetheart.”

“Leia, where is your mother’s japor snippet?” Anakin asked, setting Jinn down on his playpen.

Leia lifted her shoulder innocently. “What japor snippet, daddy?”

“The one you took from the jewelry box?” Anakin raised one eyebrow.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Leia pursed her lips.

“Leia…”

“Yes, daddy?”

“Japor snippet.” He extended his hand.

“But…” Leia pouted. “I want to wear it,” she lamented as she reached a hand to her neck and pulled out the leather cord of the japor snippet. “I want it to be my good luck charm in Auntie Soka’s lessons.”

“I’d like it for good luck tonight,” Padmé countered softly as she sat down on the couch next to Luke. “You can have it back in the morning, and I’ll ask your daddy to make me a new one. You can do that, can’t you, Ani?”

“Of course I can,” he said. “What do you say, Princess?”

Leia sighed dramatically, removing the necklace and holding it out as her lower lip quivered and her eyes grew shiny with tears. From the couch, Luke rolled his eyes at his sister’s theatrics.

“You look really stupid,” he told her bluntly. “You’re not _really_ that sad, Daddy, Jinn and me can all feel it.” On cue, Jinn blew a raspberry. “See?”

“Daddy, Jinn and _I_ ,” Padmé corrected, as Threepio brought her a cup of tea and the reporter called another five delegations for her. “Oh. Oh, Shiraya’s word, that’s fifty percent.”

“Daddy,” Leia whined as she climbed into her father’s lap. “Luke’s being mean to me.”

Anakin chuckled and wrapped his arms around her. They were already getting affected by exhaustion. “Now,  you two, behave. Your mother is about to be Consul and make history.”

_“At this point, sixty-eight percent of the total votes have been recorded, but it won’t make much difference,_ ” the HoloNet reporter announced. “ _Because fifty-four percent of that same total vote has gone to Senator Padmé Amidala Skywalker of Naboo. At this point, we can safely call the election for her, and confirm that she will be filling the Consulship vacated by Bail Organa. Consul Mon Mothma remains in office for another five years, at which point, she has the option to run for re-election, per the two ten-year term limit set forth in the Constitution for the New Republic.”_

“Well,” Padmé said, taking a deep breath. “I suppose we should go downstairs and say something to the press.”

“We are all behind you, Consul,” he beamed.

“And I couldn’t be happier.” Padmé leaned in for a long, lingering kiss that burned straight to the core of Anakin’s soul, just as their first one had. “This is everything I ever wanted for us. I love you so much.”

“Go!” He urged. “We love you.”

“Come with me,” she amended, scooping up Luke in her arms. “Let’s do this as a family.”

Anakin picked up Jinn from his place and held out his hand to Leia who took it, beaming at her parents. They were happy, healthy and safe and Anakin never felt more at peace with himself and with the Force, than at that moment, surrounded by the people he loved the most.


End file.
